Emperor Angelfish Still Scratching!

[1UCKY]

Quick question....I have been running hypo salinity (1.007) in my tank for about 6 weeks now. I am running hypo due to the fact that about 3 of my fish were scratching against the rocks/sand; some had what looked like ick spots for a few days. Everyone is looking good now, except the Emperor. Sometimes I catch him scratching his right side of the face against my over-flows. He does this once in a while and sometimes goes through the day without doing it. Could he possibly still have ick? All the fish (including him) have their colors and eat like pigs! I was planning on raising the salinity back starting next week, but don't know what should I do. This is my first time ever trying the hypo way. My parameters are all good:

PH 8.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0

 

[Bob 1000]

Do you have a uv light on your tank????

 

[1UCKY]

Do you have a uv light on your tank????

Yes I do; maybe it's time to change the bulb? I think the bulb is about 8 months old (bought from a fellow reefer).

 

[Bikinisalt]

IMO if your fish are eating, colors okay, swimming okay, leave things alone. You are only going to make matters worst and stress them out. I have a hippo tang that when I do a water change sometimes has ick the following day and after that is fine. I leave everything alone and keep my salinity at 1.021 all the time all my fish are doing fine.

 

[1UCKY]

If your fish are eating, colors okay, swimming okay, leave things alone. You are only going to make matters worst and stress them out. I have a hippo tang that when I do a water change sometimes has ick the following day and after that is fine. I leave everything alone and keep my salinity at 1.021 all the time all my fish are doing fine.

Thanks for your input! I'm just afraid that it's not ick but something else. This fish has been in captivity for a long time now and it would suck to loose it....

 

[Bob 1000]

Fish get ich from stresses in their enviroment... Maybe you have free current in your tank do you have a ground probe... 8 months on a uv is not bad if it's big enough for your system... Just throwing out things to check....

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

My grouper always scarps the sand,I have over 100watts (uv)in my big tank ,should I also lower my salinty?Could this harm my fish and how do you start this task?

 

[1UCKY]

Fish get ich from stresses in their enviroment... Maybe you have free current in your tank do you have a ground probe... 8 months on a uv is not bad if it's big enough for your system... Just throwing out things to check....

No ground probe. Never used one; heard about it a while back, but didn't pay mind to it.

 

[1UCKY]

My grouper always scarps the sand,I have over 100watts (uv)in my big tank ,should I also lower my salinty?Could this harm my fish and how do you start this task?

First you need to make sure that he has ick before you try hypo salinity. From what I've read here/online Hypo salinity is only affective against ick.

 

[marrone]

Ich is a parasite and stress has nothing to do with whether a fish has it or not. Health fish carry it and stress can weaken the fish to the point they can't fight off the ich.

As for Hypo you need to start counting from the day the last ich spot falls off the fish and the total time you've been doing it.

Hypo only works on ich, so if you have something else it's not going to kill it. Fish do scratch from time to time, without any parasites or diseases, so you need to see if the fish has something or not. If the fish keeps scratching then it probably has something and you need to treat the fish before it gets worst.

 

[marrone]

My grouper always scarps the sand,I have over 100watts (uv)in my big tank ,should I also lower my salinty?Could this harm my fish and how do you start this task?

It's very common for groupers to scarp against the sand from time to time. As long as it doesn't do it to the point where you start to see scratches on the body it's probably fine.

 

[1UCKY]

Fish do scratch from time to time, without any parasites or diseases, so you need to see if the fish has something or not. If the fish keeps scratching then it probably has something and you need to treat the fish before it gets worst.

The funny thing is that he has no scars/scrapes on the side that he's scraping against, so I don't know what to make of it.

 

[Bob 1000]

Ich is a parasite and stress has nothing to do with whether a fish has it or not. Health fish carry it and stress can weaken the fish to the point they can't fight off the ich.

Stress comes from there enviroment.... True...
Ich comes out and starts to take over when the fish is stressed... True
Heathy fish don't stay healthy long in a stressful enviroment... True

I always shorten my post to try to simplify them.... Every once and a while someone says no that's not true.... But they always write the same thing I wrote with a little more facts...

I have gotten great advice from you... And you are a very knowledgable person, But I feel like stress is stress in the tank... The more that is eliminated the better the overall health of the fish...

 

[pecan2phat]

As I've said in the past, hyposalinity is not a 100% sure method. Works most of the time but there are some strains that can survive the low salinty.
This has happened to me more then once in 28 yrs.

 

[marrone]

Stress comes from there enviroment.... True...
Ich comes out and starts to take over when the fish is stressed... True
Heathy fish don't stay healthy long in a stressful enviroment... True

I always shorten my post to try to simplify them.... Every once and a while someone says no that's not true.... But they always write the same thing I wrote with a little more facts...

I have gotten great advice from you... And you are a very knowledgable person, But I feel like stress is stress in the tank... The more that is eliminated the better the overall health of the fish...

That maybe the case but ich is a parasite and by saying ich is caused from stress is not true. Fish can be stressed out and not come down with ich, especially if it's not present in the tank. They can even die from being stressed out and it will have nothing to do with ich. Fish can also get ich when they're not stressed simply by introducing a fish that has ich.

To many people jump to the conclusion that if your fish are stressed they're going to come down with it and that just not the case.

 

[marrone]

As I've said in the past, hyposalinity is not a 100% sure method. Works most of the time but there are some strains that can survive the low salinty.
This has happened to me more then once in 28 yrs.

There are strains of ich that can take even very high levels of copper. Basically you go though a period of wipe out with just a couple of fish making it. Eventually the ich seems to die off.

 

[1UCKY]

So should I wait 2 more weeks to raise the salinity back? Copper is out of the question here, as Angels are sensative to it.

 

[marrone]

So should I wait 2 more weeks to raise the salinity back? Copper is out of the question here, as Angels are sensative to it.

You're not doing any harm so waiting 2 more weeks just to be sure.

All fish are sensitive to copper, Angels are no different. If the Angel still has ich, or something else, you may have to use it to cure the Angel.

 

[JLAudio]

1UCKY, Your doing hyposalinity in your 180 fowlr? I was informed (not sure if correctly) that hyposalinity would kill the live rock when I had a disease breakout in my fowlr.

 

[1UCKY]

1UCKY, Your doing hyposalinity in your 180 fowlr? I was informed (not sure if correctly) that hyposalinity would kill the live rock when I had a disease breakout in my fowlr.

That is correct. I have no space to set-up a hospital tank my size of fish I have now. Hypo does kill a lot of the bacteria that lives in the sand and rocks. You have to do frequent testings though cause it throws the levels off due to the die-off.