Fish scatching

spirosspike

spirosspike
Mar 19, 2005
16
0
0
Sydney
Hi ,

I have noticed my fish are "scraping" their sides against my live rock, as if something is itching them.
Is this any sign of some disease or anything else. If so what is the remedy for this.

Thanking you in advanced
 
Ich, white spot maybe, or they could be trying to brush their gills, have you checked your water?
 
Water tests are ok.
My coral beauty seems to have one small white dot on the top of its back, sort to speak. Could this be ich

Regards
 
Yes 90% chance it is. I dunno what temp you marine people keep your tanks up and wether the ruls apply the same for you, but you up the temp to kill it off.
 
don't make the temperature to much more than 28 degrees celcius because you will kill your fish. From what I have heard, the best way to cure itch is to keep feeding the fish, once it is gone they tend to become immune to it, just like humans. You could also try some remedie but be careful if you have coral or inverts becuase it can be dangerous to them.
 
What type of system do you have (reef, FOWLR, FO)?
Temp/salinity changes and feeding the fish (?) won't kill the cryptocaryon. Many have tried various psuedo cures for these pathogens, with various results, usually it subsides for a while only to return with a vengeance worse than before; the trophonts/protomonts grow in a cycle, dropping into the substrate and then re-emerging in higher numbers. This cycle confuses a lot of hobbyists, who think they have solved the problem, but the tale of woe is long for this industry-wide problem, and you need copper or starvation to be sure... that's right garlic lovers I said copper.
If you have marine ich in a fish only system and no quarantine tank, you can treat the main tank with copper just follow the directions and make a 20 percent water change in advance. It's better not to treat the main tank if possible, but if you have no q-tank it's better than watching your fish get eaten alive, and believe me, ich will kill every one of them. If you have live rock or other invertebrates it gets more tricky; the copper will kill the inverts, so you need to move ALL the fish to a quarantine system and treat them there for 30 days. Lowering the specific gravity (salinity) to 1.018 will help. This is the preferred method. While you are doing this, the trophonts in the display tank will starve. You can leave hermits, shrimp, stars etc. in the display, but you need a biofilter in the q-tank during treatment and monitor daily for ammonia. For some larger fish systems with large fish, moving them all may be impractical, so you will need to plan accordingly and decide whether QT or treating the main fish display is a better COA.
Also, be advised some species (i. e. eels, puffers, moorish idols, etc.) are harmed by copper treatments so research your charges.
 
I want to second the advice given by FloridaBoy on this. Please be aware that fish DO NOT become immune to ich.

I am not, however, convinced that you have ich. You mention 2 symptoms. First, your fish is flashing against the rock. This could be a sign of ich, but it is certainly no reason to medicate. Second, you mention that you see a SINGLE white spot on your fish. This is also not likely to be ich. A single white spot on a marine fish is much more likely Lymphocystis, which requires no treatement and is usually harmless.

IF you begin to see other spots on your fish, then you probably have ich. It will look like a dusting of salt on your fish, and should be treated as directed above.
 
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Thank you all for your replies. Seems ich is a serious condition & hard to treat
Hopefully that's not what I have, however the white dot has gone now but still all the fish are still scraping against the rock specially the coral beauty mainly against its face.

Thanks
 
I had the same symptoms and this is the suggested treatment I received:
Here's a combination of all of the good advice I've received. Move all of your fish to the q-tank, treat with copper. Bring the temp up to around 82-84 if you haven't already, and lower the salinity to a SG of about 1.008.

You don't want to have anything in your q-tank that will absorb the copper, including carbon, biowheels, substrate, etc. I'm running my q-tank right now with just a powerhead, heater, and piece of pvc pipe for the fish to hide. Keep ammonia levels down with very frequent water changes.

On your main tank, I'd let it run fishless for 6 weeks and maybe use a reef safe med, such as Ruby Kick Ich during that time. Ich can stick around for 4-6 weeks, but without any fish, it will die off.

Q-Tank = Quarantine Tank.

I purchased an acrylic 12 gallon tank with the light and power filter built into the lid and a heater at Petsmart and set it up as a quarantine tank for copper treatment. Because once you add copper to your tank it is almost impossible to get it all out and it will kill invertebrates. Hope this helps.

Joe
 
I sugggest that you get some cleaner shirmp for your coral beauty. Your fish will have regular visits to this cleaner from what I observed mine did. Good luck :troll:
 
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