hippo tang is itchy =(

[flip_x]

hey guys.. i bought a hippo tang last week.. all goes well until i started to notice that it keeps scratching against a rock or the heater... i looked at it and there isnt any white dots on it.. any ideas on why she or he is scratching so much... getting worried because its scratching up her side pretty bad.. well not bad yet but u get the picture.. =) thanks in advance guys
Cedric

 

[debbie]

Welcome to the forum.....

This is a great group of people here that can help you with all your saltwater questions.
First of all you need to tell us a bit about your aquarium:
Size
How long has it been running
What are your tank readings
Things you have in your tank
This info will greatly help with answering your question regarding your fish.

 

[flip_x]

Thanks =)
Anyways i know the tank is alittle small right now but it will be upgraded soon..
its a 56g tank.. only about 15 lbs of rock and 40 lbs of sand.
Its been up April 08.
i had the water tested today at the LFS and he said everything is good. all 0. for the bad stuff and salinity is about 1.025
his or her inmates are..
5 green chromis
1 Royal Gramma
2 Pep Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Serpent Starfish
I added the cleaner Shrimp, Starfish, 4 Chromis today..
the Royal Gramma and the pep shrimp yesterday..
So when i put the hippo in it was only one chromis
Thanks
Cedric

 

[debbie]

One thing that will be mentioned to you is a quaratine tank for all new fish. When you add new fish without quaratine you could be adding parasites into your existing tank.
Ich might not be present now, but in a day or so you might see the white spots on the Tang. They are also known for ich too.
Do you do regular water changes??
You might have to do a dip if there is ich and you will need to either wait till someone else replies to this as I am not exerinced in this area or you do a search on here for "ich" and read what comes up.
When you say that the fish is scratching alot it makes me believe there is something with your water quality. If you have not done a water change recently I would suggest you start there.
Was this fish rubbing before the new ones were added??

 

[flip_x]

I try to do about 10-15% water change every other week.. is that too little?
It was at the LFS for about a few weeks.. it had copper in the tank.. so i figured it should be clean..
The 2 Fish i had in there before were some 1-2 inch devil damsels had to get rid of them because they were picking on the smaller chromis i had in there they killed 3 of them so i gave them to the LFS they were in there since day one of the tank... and every much alive and healthy.
The Fish starting rubbing this wed.. so just a few days ago..

 

[pastor b.]

Dear hobbyist , Hippo Tangs are ick prone . Even after placing and removing them from quarantine . I've had my ht for a year and I experienced this first hand. But a friend told me to start placing Kent garlic onto the ht's food for a while. The garlic will serve as an immune booster which will strengthen your ht's immune system , and ick and its symptoms will disappear as well as the rubbing against objects . Now before you knock this ,let me say this ,It Works !

Give it a try .

 

[spiderwoman]

If you didn't have any inverts in your DT, you could hypo the whole thing, but I see that you do.
First read up on Beth's post in the disease forum and the following is in a nutshell.
1) setup a QT, let it cycle and move all fish in it for ick treatment. You can either hypo or use copper to do this.
2) in order for your little hippo to have a chance in your tank, you need a lot more LR. 15lbs is not enough for him to graze on. I'd recommend at least 50lbs more.
3) be ready to upgrade to a larger tank. Hippo's are open water swimmers and need a lot of space to swim in.

 

[flip_x]

i was observing the hippo tang alittle more.. it looks like it scratches around a certian time... it doesnt scratch all the time as i made it sound..
Plus the garlic thing.. i have seaweed that has garclic added but it wont even touch the stuff..

 

[spiderwoman]

A few scratches here and there can still be the parasite. Fish with early stages of ick don't spend all their time scratching themselves on rock, only sometimes.

 

[metweezer]

Cedric,
I have two letters for you. QT. It really is a necessary piece of equipment in todays hobby. I wish you luck with your dilemma.