fish scratching
- Thread starter gfox
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BIG-G
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Every time that i have had fish doing that it was ich, it takes some time for the white spots that are comon with ich to show up. The parasite will dig into the tissue then the area will turn white. Keep an eye out you will prolly see this take place quikly if it is ich. How long have they been flashing or scratching? Do you have another tank you could move the fish to just in case, so you can begin treatment? what kind of fish are they? Some fish cant take the standard copper treatment, you may have to use hypo and lower the salinity to .009 If you do use hypo make sure that you check the water with a refractometer because the swingarm hydrometers are not accurate enough. You may already know all of this , just trying to give some help.
With Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) seeing isn't always believing, as BIG-G points out.
Fish generally flash due to an irritation of the gills. This can be parasitic (worms, fluke, protozoan, etc.). For instance, you may not notice the fish has Marine Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum) except for this one symptom. By the time the fish gets covered by the tiny parasites at a stage visible to the naked eye, the fish is usually doomed to die.
At the other extreme, the fish can just be normally flashing. If the flashing more frequent than once every 10 minutes, there is likely a problem. If the flashing is more frequent than once every 5 minutes, there is something definitely wrong.
Fish generally flash due to an irritation of the gills. This can be parasitic (worms, fluke, protozoan, etc.). For instance, you may not notice the fish has Marine Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum) except for this one symptom. By the time the fish gets covered by the tiny parasites at a stage visible to the naked eye, the fish is usually doomed to die.
At the other extreme, the fish can just be normally flashing. If the flashing more frequent than once every 10 minutes, there is likely a problem. If the flashing is more frequent than once every 5 minutes, there is something definitely wrong.
The treatment depends upon a reliable diagnosis. It is difficult to diagnose through the Internet, but you need to decide what is the problem before it can be treated. If it is Marine Ich or Marine Velvet, immediate treatment is important. Both of these parasites have a common treatment and that is copper. This needs to be performed in a hospital tank.
Substrate and carbonate-based rocks interfere with a copper treatment. In addition, all invertebrates in and on the live rock and substrate will die. If you have any corals, crabs, snails, etc., they will die during a copper treatment, thus such treatments are done in a hospital tank. Lastly, if you treat with copper in th display tank, some copper will precipitate out of solution. Then later, if the pH drops, the copper re-dissolves and can become lethal to marine life in the tank. Too much to risk.
If you decide to treat with copper, I suggest you use the medication Cupramine and either the Salifert or Seachem Copper Test kit to measure the copper.
A quarantine tank is part of marine keeping, in my opinion. It's time to get one.
Maybe you'll need a large one for this treatment. After the treatment and then after you properly clean the hospital tank, there is no problem in selling it or giving it to a relative to get them started to become an aquarist.
As for a treatment in the display tank for those two parasites, there is none that gives reliable results. The best defense is to not let the parasites into the display, through a proper quarantine process.
For some additional information about copper treatments, you may want to read this: http://www.reefland.com/forum/marin...ment/18915-copper-treatment-use-problems.html
If you'd like to read about treatments for Marine Ich and Marine Velvet, I suggest:
MI
(Part 1)
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm
(Part 2):
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.htm
and MV:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/index.htm
Substrate and carbonate-based rocks interfere with a copper treatment. In addition, all invertebrates in and on the live rock and substrate will die. If you have any corals, crabs, snails, etc., they will die during a copper treatment, thus such treatments are done in a hospital tank. Lastly, if you treat with copper in th display tank, some copper will precipitate out of solution. Then later, if the pH drops, the copper re-dissolves and can become lethal to marine life in the tank. Too much to risk.
If you decide to treat with copper, I suggest you use the medication Cupramine and either the Salifert or Seachem Copper Test kit to measure the copper.
A quarantine tank is part of marine keeping, in my opinion. It's time to get one.
Maybe you'll need a large one for this treatment. After the treatment and then after you properly clean the hospital tank, there is no problem in selling it or giving it to a relative to get them started to become an aquarist.As for a treatment in the display tank for those two parasites, there is none that gives reliable results. The best defense is to not let the parasites into the display, through a proper quarantine process.
For some additional information about copper treatments, you may want to read this: http://www.reefland.com/forum/marin...ment/18915-copper-treatment-use-problems.html
If you'd like to read about treatments for Marine Ich and Marine Velvet, I suggest:
MI
(Part 1)
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm
(Part 2):
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.htm
and MV:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/index.htm
