Itchy fish?

Tim S

Tim S

Joined
11 Jul 2009
Posts
435
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Location
Cape Town
Hey all,
Every now and again my fish are lightly scraping themselves on the rocks. I've seen this behaviour before but cannot remember how to fix it. I tested my water and found nothing wrong.
PO4 -0
Nitrate - 0
Salinity 1.022

Can someone advise me on this.
 
I don't know if this could be a reason for your fish scraping themselves on the rocks but your salinity is too low, what I've read is it should be 1.025 or 1.026 but I could be mistaken.
 
You are correct 2time - the ideal salinity is 1.025-1.026
When the water evaporates daily, top up with salt water until the SG is 1.025, then after that you top up with RO again :)
 
I bought a regal tang 2 weeks ago but it had some white spot. It then spread to my wimple. My cleaner wrasse has been cleaning them fruriously and keeping it in check and it does not seem to be getting worse. If anything slightly better.
 
Tim, you took a big chance buying a fish with whitespot. Introducing it to your system has spread it to the rest of your LS. You need to keep the new addition seperate in a hospital tank while treating the whitespot. Do a search on the forum about setting up such a hospital tank and treating whitespot.
 
Tim S said:
I bought a regal tang 2 weeks ago but it had some white spot. It then spread to my wimple. My cleaner wrasse has been cleaning them fruriously and keeping it in check and it does not seem to be getting worse. If anything slightly better.
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I think you have your answer , assume your fish have Ich . Read up on ich remember you only see ich/whitespot in one stage of the life cycle .

How are the fish doing ?
 
Last night I had a close look and don't see any spots on the regal and wimpel. The regal just wont stand still long enough to realy look properly. They did seem to fade over the past few days and seem to have gone.
 
Tim S said:
Hey all,
Every now and again my fish are lightly scraping themselves on the rocks. I've seen this behaviour before but cannot remember how to fix it. I tested my water and found nothing wrong.
PO4 -0
Nitrate - 0
Salinity 1.022

Can someone advise me on this.
Click to expand...

Tim S said:
I bought a regal tang 2 weeks ago but it had some white spot. It then spread to my wimple. My cleaner wrasse has been cleaning them fruriously and keeping it in check and it does not seem to be getting worse. If anything slightly better.
Click to expand...

That is why it is very important to give as much info as possible in order for us to help, unlike your first post. That's why we initially thought the low salinity could have something to do with it, and all the time it was the reagal introduced with white spot already...
 
I see we all love to see pictures. So here's my Heni with cleaner working hard on his white spot. What a specimen. Currently treating the system. Dory looks clear and swimming with new found mate the convict.
20854bc5d53fabb45.jpg
 
Ok have treated the white spot for two weeks now and still no improvement on the Heni. I've fresh water dipped him (3 minutes) twice and it still comes back. I have increased the salinity to 1.026 and the fish still scratch themselves on the rocks. Don't know what more to do, as only the heni has white spot. Has anybody got a hospital or quarintine tank in CT who could offer to hold him for me for a while?
 
Tim S said:
Ok have treated the white spot for two weeks now and still no improvement on the Heni. I've fresh water dipped him (3 minutes) twice and it still comes back. I have increased the salinity to 1.026 and the fish still scratch themselves on the rocks. Don't know what more to do, as only the heni has white spot. Has anybody got a hospital or quarintine tank in CT who could offer to hold him for me for a while?
Click to expand...

hi Tim,

I have an extra tank standing around, let me set it up and we can then see what we can do , BTW Tim why are you raising your salinity for itch ? You should be running hypsalionity. Another option that you have ...if it is still feeding well is to try Metranidazole, I would do this anyway in a QT tank anyway. Also adding Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids have been proven to increase immune respons

My 2C
 
Since you are going to have the fish out of the system, let me tell you that the only secure way to make sure that ick is gone from your system is to leave it without fish for 2-3 months. The parasites is in the sand and the rock and the water, but without fish to complete its life cycle, it will die. The fish can stay in the hospital tank with strong medications or hyposalinity (1.009) for a couple of weeks and then kept there in the best conditions posible, you'll need to do frequent water changes, provide good filtration, since there won´t be live rock to perform the biological filtration.

Not seing the parasite on the fish does not mean it's gone, trust me I learned the hard way...
 
Tim,Try that Herbtana product i got from frans it worked wonders in my tank.my tank has been clear of whitespot for 7 weeks.
 
FransSny said:
maj, he tried it already that is what I fand strange as it has worked for everyone I have spoken to
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i found that with a bigger volume setup he needs to dose more and for longer period.tim,did u leave ur skimmer off for 2 hours after dosing and removed all carbon out the system?
 
I think we all to quick to say it is white spot. I'm on my second bottle of Herbtana and my fish has not cleared. The problem is that all the meds we get is a broad band and not specific. When my cleaner picks of the white spot off the fish, you can see a little red mark were the white spot was.
So I think that one has to try 1 or 2 things before you get results.
 
davidfr7 said:
I think we all to quick to say it is white spot. I'm on my second bottle of Herbtana and my fish has not cleared. The problem is that all the meds we get is a broad band and not specific. When my cleaner picks of the white spot off the fish, you can see a little red mark were the white spot was.
So I think that one has to try 1 or 2 things before you get results.
Click to expand...

Yip david, we always assume that it is WS and there might be other causes. BTW how is your PB doing ?

JD167 said:
Tim, Frans and Ronaldgv gave some great advice. I suggest you take up Frans's offer. Your fish will thank you for it.
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JD at the risk of putting my foot into it I believe QT should be used as a LAST resort moving a sick fish around will put extra stress on an already weakened animal.

But my offer stands tim, just give me a call
 
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