Fish are scratching all of a sudden.any ideas?

TomToro

TomToro

The Old Guy
Oct 21, 2006
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Michigan
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put in the last fish I'm going to buy (a tank raised percula) and one day later all 7 of the fish are scratching them selves against rocks. I have lots of inverts, both corals and crustaceons so I can't dose anything. What can I do with this?
I have access to a 15gal w\skimmer and powerhead, but most of these fish are good hiders in the LR.

Thanks,
Tom

All parameters are good except nitrates are still at 40. will do a water change and remove lots of crushed coral within three days.
temp 81
100gal
 
Are there any white dots, kind of like someone sprinkled salt on the fish, appearing on the fins and body of the fish? You need to do a water change ASAP as the high nitrates are probably stressing out your fish which will contribute to your problem. Usually fish will flash(scratch against rocks) if they have Ich or some type of fungal thing going on. You need to look really close at the fish and see if you can see anything.
 
Fish Getting Worse by the Day

Today I looked and I see black dots on my old Regal Tang. He looks very stressed and is shooting all over the tank. He's still eating like crazy, but is definitely sick from something. My pseudo is looking bad too. Has white flakes all over him and is also darting around.


I'm mixing a large water change right now and did my testing. Can I be stressing the fish or is there a reaction to high alk, high calcium and low ph? I've never seen black dots before. Could this be some sort of burn from the high readings?

I dose Bionic two part in equal amounts. About 50ml for a 100gal tank w\200lbs of LR. Not sure what the actual volume of water would be.

Can't get the ph up without overdosing on the alk. Any ideas? Are the nitrates holding the ph down?

Calcium 500
Alk 130
PH 7.7-7.9
nitrates 15 (color in between the 10 and 20 on a Seatest).
Nitrites 0
Am 0

Corals and anemones are fine. Even better than usual.

Thanks,
Tom
 
Do you have a qt? You're going to have to treat your fish it sounds like ich or some other external parasites. You could do a fresh water dip but, if you put the fish back in the tank they would just be re-infected. I'd really avoid anything that treats my whole tank if possible. You might also consider adding some garlic to their foods that will sometimes get rid of parasites.
Other wise you could do a fresh water dip every other day for about 30 days on all fish. The problem with that is that it's really going to stress out you and your fish.
Hope this helps and let us know what's feasable for you .
Max
 
I do have a 15gal I can use as a qt. I don't know how to set it up however. I do have enough salt water made up to do a significant water change and fill the 15. My questions on the qt are:

Do I use a protien skimmer
Do I use LR from the main tank and have it cycle? or leave it empty?
Once the temp comes up can I use it for fish right after I fill it?
do I have a substrate of any kind
powerheads?
Lights?


I assume I buy a copper tester and keep the levels proper, but what's proper?

How long can I keep the qt going? Let's say if\when this crisis is over, and in the future I want to quarantine a fish before putting him with the others, how do I keep the tank 'waiting'?

Last question: how do I feed the fish garlic? Right now I think that might be my first choice given I'll have to remove all the LR and corals to catch those buggers hiding in it.

Too many questions, eh?
Thanks,
Tom
 
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