Blue tang rubbing himself on my substraight

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

So I just noticed my blue tang rubbing himself on the sand in the bottom of my tank. I dont see any sign of ich or any spots etc. Should I get him out of the tank now? No one seems sick in my tank. Am I looking at a soon to be outbreak?

[jrozzi]

is he eating? did you find your blenny?

[davocean]

Sounds like what we call "flashing", which is normally an indicator of something bothering him like a parasite or disease, that would be my guess.

[Allmost]

yea, flukes or ich or ....

what else is in the tank ? how old is the tank ?

Prety much have 2 choices ... live with it, or deal with it .

live with it means feed it well, and hope its immunity system kicks in and gets rid of it . key word is hope, it may break out and kill all the fish in a month or two though !

deal with it would be to catch all your fish, and QT them and leave your main tank empty for a month or two depending on what it is.

give it a couple more days, make sure water is clean and feed it well and let us know how his behaviour or appearance changes.

[scuzy]

Notice any spots on him? Is he shaking his head? If had shaking is usually flukes, white spots are usually ich

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

Hi JR...yes he is eating, and unfortunately I have not found my Blenny. I have searched my tank, even took out the rocks to see if he was under one of them. I cant find him on the floor, and he wasnt under any rocks. It's real strange. Ive had the blue tang for 4 months now and I dont see any other fish acting strange. 2 clowns and a roual gramma, and a fire shrimp.

[footballdude2k3]

If you have a QT, I would put him in there for a little while to see if anything is going on

[jrozzi]

shoot sorry to hear that, As far as the tang have you introduced anything new lately?

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

No spots no shaking his head either...

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

The blenny was the new guy before that nothing for a couple months...

[jrozzi]

I see well if you QT him and he is sick, the move will probably escalate the sickness due to him being stressed from trying to catch him and a new tank, which could cause him to stop eating which = death IMO. However you will be able to medicate so it may work out. If you don't QT you run the risk of your other fish catching it. So like the Allmost said above, you either live with it and try to manage it or move everything to QT and medicate.

[jrozzi]

Ive never dealt with flukes only ich. Here is something interesting I found online should you choose to manage it. I did find this online in an article called facts about marine ich, so take it how you want.

-INTERESTING FIND: If no new MI (marine ich) is introduce into an infected aquarium, the MI already there continues to cycle through multiple generations until about 10 to 11 months when the MI has ‘worn itself out’ and becomes less infective. A tank can be free of an MI infestation if it is never exposed to new MI parasites for over 11 months.

If you would like to know how I handled my personal ich experience with success id be glad to send it you in a PM.

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

I re arranged my rocks 2 days ago...would this have anything to do with it? Could he be marking territory? Od did that stress him out enough for an ich breakout? He isnt constantly scratching, but he's doing it enough to notice it...

[JoeVandal49]

Freshwater dip would confirm flukes if it has them. I had Flukes confirmed on fish recently through a FW dip. Prazipro is reef safe, but i still decided to use caution and setup a QT, and am treating currently.

If you post in the fish disease forums you will likely get a better response from people that know what they are talking about in terms of treatment, and can suggest course of action. I wold have been lost without the fish disease forums.

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

Ok...so I just set up my QT tank ready to put him in, but I just noticed hes still eating like usual so Im wondering if I should quarantine him now? Or wait? Any assistance is SO appreciated...

[FishN00b83]

just because a fish is flashing doesn't mean it has ich. I would say you need to watch him closely, but I wouldn't panic. if it is ich it's in your tank already and you should take care of it by pulling everything out and leaving the tank empty for a while. if it's not no need to stress the fish out. just watch and see what happens.

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

Thanks Fishn00b83...what should I be looking for? I know white spots...other then that? Once I see the white spots...do I remove all 4 fish? And also what about my shrimp?

[FishN00b83]

well it doesn't have to be ich, it could be flukes or some other parasite. if you get the tang out and give him a freshwater dip you can tell if it has flukes. if it turns out to be ich all the fish need to come out and put in QT. just watch the tank closely and see what happens.

the shrimp are ok to leave in the DT.

[inetmug]

Prazipro is supposedly reef friendly, and targets flukes.

[ca1ore]

Maybe I missed it, but, blue tang = hippo tang? If yes, then this is a fish that is VERY sensitive to ich so you will not have to wait very long to get a clear diagnosis. No point in removing it at this point as the parasite, if that is what it is, is already in your tank.

If we are talking about a hippo, and depending upon how big it is, this is a really idiosyncratic fish that can do weird things. A 55 is also way too small and can certainly exacerbate stress in this fish.

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

Still scratching...do I remove him? And what should i treat him with? I dont have any medicine on hand, I'll have to get some...

[FishN00b83]

the best thing for you to do would be to take all the fish out (leave the corals and inverts in if you have any) and treat in a QT. you'll need to leave the tank fallow for like 8 weeks to make sure nothing is in the main tank.

[JoeVandal49]

I would pull him out and attempt a FW dip to confirm flukes.

Prazipro, cupramine, and formalin seem to be good medications to keep on hand.

Prazi will treat for flukes or internal parasites/worms. You can treat with prazipro in the DT, but it may be best to pull and treat in QT. Most people who QT treat every fish with Prazi, because it is very mild and most fish handle it very well, and it treats for the most part things you cant see.

If its ich, you need to either treat with TT, cupramine, or hypo.

Velvet can be treated with cupramine, brook with formalin i believe.

Read the stickies in the fish disease forum, they are very helpfull, and pretty much anything most people in the newbie forum will tell you are stickies in the disease treatment forum.

Good luck!

[lynchmob3000]

How's is his breathing? If he's taking very rapid deep breathes there's something wrong. If he's not shown signs of ich could it be possible that your alk is way high or low? I've seen low alk create low ph and start to irritate the fishes skin. If you lost a fish recently could be a coincidence or just he didn't make it and the waste is stressing the fish.. 55 gallon is rather small for most tangs also.

My hippo tang is really energetic and full grown and he does weird posturing like you explain.

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

**UPDATE** I got a Seachem ammonia alert tag because the cupramine is giving me false positive readings on ammonia. This morning all 4 fish seem to be acting normal swimming, eating and not scratching. I'm crossing my fingers for a few more weeks of treatment. Thank you everyone...