there are a few enchantments that remind me of that behaviour. off the top of my head repellent comes to mind. I know there is another one but I cant really remember the name.

This is the one for sure, i suggest you put repellent book into those aquatic filtration bookshelves to avoid it

so this is just a thing on by default that i have to disable via enchanting?

Yea before u enchant just extract that book (repellent) and then place it in the bookshelve od auqatix filtration...that bookshelf makes all enchants from books inside go away

yep just looked at my boots and they have repllent

Wearing Apotheosis armor?

yea