blue angel in qt scratching against the bottom of the tank...

bergamer

bergamer

Active Member
I bought this blue angel/queen 2 weeks ago and he twitches sometimes and I was in the process of doing a water change and he began scratching against the tank about 10 or so times.
my nitrates are at 70ppm. (which is why I am doing 10g water changes daily) the tank is a 40g with about 30-40lbs of LR.
could it just be the high nitrates?
I tested for ammonia and it was 0ppm.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Why are your nitrates so high? Tangs have little tolerance for the conditions that result in such high nitrates. Have you noticed ich yet?
 
nicetry

nicetry

Active Member
I'd suggest a couple of big water changes using aged/aerated saltwater. 15-20 gallons would not be too much, if only to get the trates down. Have you checked your pH?
The twitching behavior could be indicative of parasites. Have you seen other symptoms of ich (white spots)?
 
bergamer

bergamer

Active Member
I don't know why my nitrates shot up so quickly. I am changing 10g daily. I haven't seen any signs of ich.
he seems to do the most scratching odly enough when I am removing or adding water.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Well berg, I recently put 4 fish in QT and 2 of them were flashing. Because I added 4 fish, I had to use a bigger qt than what I had established, so I "recycled". I had trates off the roof and even a little ammonia, and at that point, none of my fish were flashing anymore (they were undergoing hypo).
I don't think they flashing and trates are related. I am thinking parasite.
You said he ONLY flashes when your doing a water change??
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Use a magnifying glass and look closely at the fish at various times of day. Ich can be hard to detect at times.
What are your nitrates usually? Are you running mechanical filters? Or have crushed coral substrate?
 
bergamer

bergamer

Active Member
my nitrates are usually around 20ppm. As for filtration, I have about 30lbs of LR, an aqua C remora and a HOB skimmer
(the tank is BB)
On the advice of a friend, who thought it might be flukes, I tried a fresh water dip......it didn't go so well
(my friend told me there is a fluke outbreak in Angels shipping into Los Angeles)
I used a bucket of water (which included a heater an a bubbling air stone) and matched the PH 8.25 and temp 79 with the QT tank.
When I put the fish in the bucket she went into immediate shock. I prodded her a little with my net and she swam and then began falling on her side. I immediatly took her out and placed her back in the QT where she seems to be recovering from the trauma.
I had a little trouble matching the PH. I used PH buffer to raise and vinegar to reduce PH.
any ideas what I did wrong?
 
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