triggerfish scratching

[usirchchris]

I have a picasso triggerfish that keeps scratching against my coral. I don't see anything on his skin...but he keeps scratching and going over to my cleaner shrimp. I don't see any white spots on his fins, and none of the other fish seem to be acting weird...any ideas?

 

[usirchchris]

Well I have decided I am going to set up my old 20 gallon as a qt..Question...do I have to cycle the qt...or do you just do many water changes to keep the levels down? Can I just put all new water in and go from there?...or should I use water from my existing tank?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by usirchchris
Well I have decided I am going to set up my old 20 gallon as a qt..Question...do I have to cycle the qt...or do you just do many water changes to keep the levels down? Can I just put all new water in and go from there?...or should I use water from my existing tank?
Do you have any porous surface besides LR or LS to add to the qt to help with biological filtration? Do you have any sponge filters or can you use some filter pads from your display? Have you checked your water readings in your display tank? How long have you had this fish?

 

[usirchchris]

Yes I have lr and ls...but I thought you were not supposed to put that in the qt...I am planning on doing hypo...won't that kill any beneficial bacteria that would help in the first place? I have had the fish for about a month or more...he is still eating like normal. My cowfish is also acting strange now...seems to want to hang out in the current of one of my powerheads..Just turned around and he is picking at the coral as if nothing is wrong. I don't want to jump the gun. Should I wait a few days until I can actually see what is on them. At this point I don't see anything, but there is obviously something bothering them. I have a puffer and a damsel in the tank as well, that are not showing any signs of ill effect. I tested my water just last night and the results were
ph-8.2
nitrites-0
amonia-0
nitrates-20-30

 

[usirchchris]

OOPPS! Sorry just noticed you said BESIDES lr and ls. well I have two fluval filters taht I could take pads out of. I also put the filter I had on my 20 on my new tank so I can move that over as well.

 

[sepulatian]

I asked if you had anything porous besides the LR and LS. They cannot go into hypo. You could sacrifice a cup or two of your LS for some biological filtration. The beneficial bacteria will not die, just make sure there are no inverts in the sand. The sand will become full of life again once it goes back into the qt (assuming you have not added chemicals to the qt) I would set the qt up with display water and try to get as much biological bacteria in there as you can. Use filter pads from your display, some LS, add some prime (bottled bacteria). Go to your LFS tommorow and pick up a sponge filter or two. These are sponges that hook up to an air hose (such as those sold for FW air stones) and place the sponges in a high flow area of your sump/fuge or display, it is best not to hook the sponge to the air pump if it is going into the display. Leave them in there for at least a week, more is better. Being that you have not seen anything on your fish you may have a small amount of time. That time will be needed to get the qt tank ready ASAP. If it ends up being nothing on your fish then at least you have a qt set up.

 

[usirchchris]

would a uv sterilizer 40 watts or so on a 125 gallon fix the problem if caught early enough, or is that a bad idea? Just want to exhaust all options before I put my fish through the stress of a move, constant water changes, ahh...never ending stress for the poor things. The trigger I think would make it no problem, but I know the cow is more delicate, and he is my favorite.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by usirchchris
would a uv sterilizer 40 watts or so on a 125 gallon fix the problem if caught early enough, or is that a bad idea? Just want to exhaust all options before I put my fish through the stress of a move, constant water changes, ahh...never ending stress for the poor things. The trigger I think would make it no problem, but I know the cow is more delicate, and he is my favorite.
A uv sterilizer is an ok preventative. The only parasite a uv kills is those that cross the light. Ich spend very little of their time in the water column. UV's are a plus but certainly will not remove ich from the system. They are not a substitute for quarantine either.

 

[sepulatian]

Have you seen any spots yet? Calm down. If you get the qt up, running, and cycled as quickly as you can, then you won't be doing constant water changes. You acclimate the fish into the qt. The move is not stressfull at all. It is the water fluctuations of an uncycled qt that stress fish out.

 

[usirchchris]

I still do not see any spots. He is still eating like normal, but he is still scratching from time to time...do they sometimes just do this? Today I noticed that his stomach that is usually very white has a shadow like tint...and it looks as if he is making marks on his side from the scratching. I still just don't know what to treat him for as I don't have any clear visual signs of a problem. Thank you sep for taking time to comment I really appreciate it.

 

[shark bait]

if this guy gets ich he is IMO not going to die I have seen triggers with fullblown ich and lived to tell about it, they are tanks so no need to stress. A qt is a must and just paint the bottom black, on the out side and put a pvc pipe like 2" big in it. just make sure you paint the bottom you'll thank me.

 

[usirchchris]

I am now noticing white dots on the other 3 of my fish...my domino damsel has the most, two spots on one side three on the other. My cowfish has two specs on his back fin, and my puffer has one on a side fin. This is all as of today, and from later this evening. They were not there this afternoon. THey are all in a 125 gallon at the moment. My qt is only 20 gallons. will Then all make it in there for 8 weeks? My biggest fish is 1.5" maximum. I tested my water in my qt today. I used all water from my 125, and have two fluval 405 pads in there plus another OH filter I had on my 125. The water tested fine.
nitrites-0
amonia-0
ph-8.2
nitrates-20
I dropped in a piece of shrimp tonight, but don't really even know if that is necessary. Should they be fine to move now...also should I move all 4 at once or would that be too much. Ugh, one thousand questions...Thanks everyone for your help, I sincerely appreciate it.