Help My Blue Hippo Please!!!

[laxplaya]

My poor baby blue hippo tang has some scratch marks on him! Could it be from a tankmate or is it from the live rock? please help him! I have a 3 foot 58 gal with 3 bangaii cardinals, royal gramma, yellow tang, skunk shrimp, coral banded shrimp, and some firefish gobies. These have come around recently after i added the yellow tang and gramma. The gramma and hippo tang are always chasing each other playfully like tag. The tang is 3 inches long but the blue hippo is about the size of a quarter. Please help my baby! I cant get pics of them cuz hes so small but they are on his sides, vertical scratches on both sides, he swims ok and he eats but since the edition of the yellow tang and gramma he has been rather shy. I am getting rid of the yellow tang this week cuz he is so big. please help my little baby!!!

 

[scotty37]

When I got my Hippo, we wasnt much bigger than a nickel. He used to scratch on things horribly. I took a guess that he had some kind of parasite and got a neon goby and that took care of it. Its neat to watch the neon goby vacuum suck the parasites off the fish. Since I got the neon goby, i havent had any parasite problems at all.

 

[zanoshanox]

probably getting bit by another fish, perhaps the YT. My yellow was doing that to my hippo for the first three weeks after he was introduced.

 

[stanlalee]

if its just scratched up from hiding and wedging into rocks it will just heal up on its own. at that size it is it will be doing that frequently.

 

[laxplaya]

yeah, the scratching has gone away, he has also been swimming around a lot more.