Regal Tang Scratching.

[lutz493]

I've have a Regal Tang in my tank for a month and 1/2. He was tank raised and once put in tank seemed to be ok. He has though scratched himself from time to time and I did not think anything of it.
The last 2 nights he has been going down to the sand bed and scratching himself. There is a small shell that sticks out of the sand in 1 spot, he will look at it for a minute and then dart his body across it a few times and go back to his business.
His coloring is bright, he is active all day grazing, he eats moreso then my clowns.
I've checked this body for and spots or discoloration and there is nothing. The fish since I bought him has a bumpy stomach. He is a very small Regal about 1 1/2 inches. He eats all day, he eats the Mysis I put in the tank and I have recently put in Algae Sheets he is eating those. My LFS said he just is getting enough food which I find hard to believe -
Some information that might come in handy, My water levels have been checked they are all fine. I house a 6-Line Wrasse, 2 Sebae Clowns, Watchman Goby with him. I was feeding them Frozen Brine and switched to Mysis Shrimp. The Algae Sheets I have only just started using. I do daily feedings.
Also the fish has been growing quickly in size but still has his lumpy stomach, this is why I question if it is because he is eating.
Any help would be of a tremondous.
Thank you.

 

[lutz493]

OK I might have jumped the gun posting this had not seen the post below. Beth you say to do a 'Hyposalinty' - Is this what I need to do to my tank? I have 90lbs of LR in there and I just put in a DSB 2 weeks before. I wanna make sure before I go through the trouble of taking the tank apart again.
Also I am unsure of how to do a Hyposalinty. I am new to hobby, this is my first run in with fish problems (
Thanks
My Alk is 3.8 and my PH is 8.2 (tested yesterday) if that matters. My Salt is at between .023 and .024

 

[beth]

Using a magnifying glass, really do a close inspection of all your fish, from head to tail, fins, etc. REALLY LOOK. Notice any white specs that look like grains of salt sprinkled on fish? Or notice any thing else, like raised scales, tiny areas that are a bit red, etc?

 

[lutz493]

I've checked my fish.
All their gills and scales look ok.
The Regal Tank has perhaps 3-4 small 'grains of salt' on his upper body in a line with 1 spot on his other side near his underside.
My LFS is closed until tomorrow - Today I am doing a water change so while I have my supplies out what can I do? I will wait for a reply before messing around.
Thanks

 

[lutz493]

..
Do those spots mentioned above mean my fish have ick?
Do I use a 'Reef Safe' on the tank to see if it goes away and if not take him out?
Are fish able to fight off ick once they get it? Small cases of Ick.....

 

[beth]

Do you have a FO tank? Or do you have any LR, LS or inverts?

 

[lutz493]

Hello-
I have a FOWLR atm but also house 2 Anemones. I have 3 Emeralds, 15 Ceriths, 10 Nass Snails, 4 Scarlets.
I went to my LFS today and told them my fish was scratching but had been scratching for atleast a few weeks and there were hardly any signs of white spots, a few as I mentioned above.
My LFS told me Ich usually spreads quickly and can wipe the tank in 2 weeks. My fish has been scratching for over 2 weeks for sure. They told me odds are it mebbe a Parasite other then Ick because Ick should have wiped the tank or spread by now which I checked again and no other fish have spots.
The action I took was "Kick Ick" I understand the sucess rate of this is much lower then a Fresh Water Dip. My LFS does Fresh Water Dips 3x a week and said they would keep all of my fish for a week if need be and dip them 3x
My Tank is in my Home office and I did a first application of "Kick Ick" I will watch the Regal on a daily basis and if signs do not improve I will remove my rock etc from the tank, get all of my fish to the LFS to spend a week vacation getting dipped.
Please let me know if there is another action I should be taking in this matter.
I've checked the fish since my first post and any small dots have not increased in the last 2 days..
Thanks for the help in this matter.

 

[gatorcsm]

If you determine that Ich is your problem, as was said, the one week at the LFS will not help you, and the three dips in FW will not help that situation any. What will help, is moving those fish to a separate container (QT/HT) and performing hyposalinity (you can do a search for 'hyposalinity' and find instructions by beth on it. This procedure does not require any chemicals/medications and is very effective if done correctly. I, nor others on this board, would recommend the use of kick ich. There are some alternative methods that have been attempted (succesfully, as far as I know) when a quarantine/hospital tank was not available. Timsedwards would be the guy to go for on that particular one. But his method would be as a last resort.
Before putting your fish through the stress of a ride to the fish store and 3 FW dips, read some more on hypo. This will be your best course of action.

 

[beth]

Well, you already started the kick ich, so I guess go with that. This medication has a lower success rate than other more viable treatments, which would be the hyposalinity. Also, the long term effects on your inverts when exposed to kick ich or other so called "reef safe" meds is dubious.
As stated, doing FW dips by itself would be a waste of time.

 

[lutz493]

Ok -
These are my options. Help me out please.
I don't have a 2nd tank to keep these fish in for 3 weeks.

[hr]
I have 2 Rubbermaid Bins - I can remove my Live Rock put that into the Bins, run a heater and pump in there and let it sit for how long? While I treat the entire tank for Ick. My problems here are, where do my inverts go and I have 2 Anemones. While I think my inverts can surivive in the rubbermaids, I am unsure if my Anemones can. This I assume is my best way to go about this correct? If so what exactly am I doing to my tank once I remove the LR and Inverts?

[hr]
The tank is in a good condition and is ready to house Corals. I am setting up a 180 Gal which I am ordering this week and going to be set-up when I return from a Vacation the first week of April. My plan before Ick was to keep my fish in this 55 and add some corals so they can start to grow etc and transfer them into this 180 when it comes time to do so. I have 5 fish in the tank 2 Sebae, Regal Tang, 1 Watchman Goby and a Six-Line Wrasse. I could just give the fish back to the LFS, he will treat my fish for the disease and then I will just not have any fish until my 180 goes up. Doing this will still allow me to add corals and keep my inverts correct while the Ick dies off?

[hr]
No other fish right now have Ick - If I pull the Regal out of the tank is it possible the rest of the fish can fight off the parasite until it dies off? Can ick act in as sleeper in fish?
My dilemma here is I didn't ever set up a Hospital tank and it was my ignorance being new to the hobby. Lesson learned, Q tank will be set up and cycled when the 180 gal is. I fear that removing all the Live Rock to Rubbermaid bins is going to end up killing my Anemones because of Lightning conditions and stress.
Either way I think Fish or Anemones something needs to go back to my LFS. I will be honest and say that I have no idea what i am doing in terms of Hyposalinty and doing a Fresh Water Dip - This makes me want to just return the fish to the LFS let him make sure they are taken care of properly while they can be saved.
I just redid the entire tank 2 weeks ago replacing CC with a LS so I know there was stress brought on to my fish and Anemones. I wanna do this as stress free for my animals as I can. If taking the Fish back to the LFS and eating the money I paid for them to ensure they stay alive is fine with me.
Again my ignorance in the Q-Tank. Right now I can still make sure it all stays alive so what is my best course of action for my situation?
- I know this forum probably gets countless people like myself asking these same questions and I thank you for the patience on this problem.

 

[gatorcsm]

With regards to hypo, it is extremely easy, as long as you read and take your time (to a point obviously). Not sure about how the anemones would do in the rubbermaid, I didn't have any. But the idea of removing all of the inverts/liverock is that now you can perform hyposalinity on the main tank. The fish will be fine as long as you provide some pvc for hiding and ensure you monitor levels. The rock/inverts should be more than fine in their container. Again not positive on the anemones.
If you have some rubbermaids, I'd do that.
Here's the instructions for hypo:
First, ensure all of the inverts (make sure you get all of the snails/hermits) are out of the tank.
You must use either a refractometer or highly accurate glass hydrometer (if a refractometer is not available) to do this
Perform small water changes using fresh ro/di to replace old water with (this will drop down your specific gravity. You want to perform this step over approx. 48 hours. The target S.G. is 1.009
Do not go any lower than this, as you approach 1.008 you can get close to the internal S.G. of fish (this was info passed on a previous message by one of the mods) You also must be less than 1.010 to ensure you destroy the ich.
You will leave the tank at this level for atleast 3 weeks. Pref. 4 weeks.
At the end of this period, do the reverse of the initial lowering and do small water changes to return S.G. to 1.022ish (whatever you keep yours at) Then, it is recommended to allow the fish to remain for about a week to observe, but that is up to you. You SHOULD be fine adding back the rock. Ensure you match all parameters and even acclimate all of the contents of the rubbermaid.
That's pretty much it. It's not too big of a deal. Just a pain, and it's nice when it's over. I just finished last week. Everything's going great now, fortunately.
Good luck!
-Gator