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jjj1100
05/21/2006, 09:46 AM
Ok, I have had my live rock for about 7 weeks, Bare bottom tank for right now. The water tests 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitirite, .2 nitrates, PH 8.2, SG 1.024. Live stock right now is 3 1inch Damsels, a 3 inch Niger Trigger, 2 inch Valenti Puffer, a 2 inch Hawian Blue spot puffer, and a 8 inch snow flake eel.

All the fish have been there at least 3 weeks. Just recently, the Niger has been scratching on the rocks, fairly regularly. I just saw one of the puffers do it, and now I am concerned. This has been going on for about 3 days, and in which time i have done 10% water changes daily.

The fish are being feed, flake, Krill, Trigger Formula, Formula 1 and formula 2...I mix it up dialy.

Any suggestions on the scratching, there is no signs of ich or any marking on the fish, I am just concerned becuase of the frequency of the scratching of the Niger

Thanks everyone

tkeracer619
05/21/2006, 10:46 AM
Scratching is a sign of ich. Much sooner than the visible stage. Did you qt the fish for 6-8 weeks with some type of ich treatment. If not your display has ich and will always have it untill you take the fish out and let it go without fish for 8 weeks.

Do you have a QT setup. This is common with people comming from fw to sw. They skip the qt step and have to start over months down the road. I learned the hard way. With a 300G that would be a real hard way.

jjj1100
05/21/2006, 10:55 AM
well...i have a QT tank set up, but I have a feeling I am going to be learning the hard way. I just now set up the QT tank and these fish never went into it...a day late and a dollar short.

But is there anything I can do if it is Ich. There are no visable white spots.

Billybeau1
05/21/2006, 10:56 AM
It could also be flukes. They are very difficult to see on fish. You have to look real close but they look like small transparent discs on the fish. I'm not saying thats what you got but when I had the same problem awhile ago, I freshwater dipped the fish and the flukes fell right off. I could see them on the bottom of the dipping container with a flashlight.

That said, there are many different opinions here on freshwater dips. I personally have had great success with it when done properly and for the proper reason. PH and Temp must be as close as possible to the main tank.

Good luck. :)

UrbanSage
05/21/2006, 11:11 AM
Soak the food in garlic to combat ich

zeuss zoso
05/21/2006, 11:29 AM
My Kole Tang was scratching and was pale, but keeping my conditions good he rallied back and is healthy as ever. My yellow tang had TERRIBLE black ick. It looked more black than yellow. I couldn't catch it but fed it special food pellets and it got better in no time.
Alex
PM with more questions if needed