All fish rubbing rocks...????

[BfishLpond78]

Sooo...A good amount of my fish are using the rocks as scratching post...I see no signs of ick or any other issues, I can only guess it is the beginning stages of....something.

Not sure what I should do...

I have plenty of tanks just sitting around waiting for my build that i could use. but now sure what I should do, i really dont feel like losing all my stuff...lol

I have a 20 Long that I guess i could move either the fish (seems like that would be a pain...or pull all my coral out and put it in there and just rig my light over it in the mean time?

If you have any ideas please let me know.

 

[Triton_Z]

Flashing, or rubbing against the rocks or substrate, is normally a sign of a external parasite. Ich and flukes are the most commonly encountered and your fish probably have one or the other.

Describe the history of your tank and what and when fish were added. This will help all of us in making suggestions on your best options.

Most treatment is advised in a separate treatment, hospital or quarantine tank. The 20L will likely be good for most fish coming from a 55g, however since we don't have a count or list, it's best to add the information. The 55g is now considered contaminated and will likely need to be fish-less (to fallow ; if you have corals or inverts in the tank) for a determined period of time.

Post some more details and history and a better recommendation can be made.

 

[BfishLpond78]

Please bear with me, I am not sure the difference between flashing or rubbing. They quickly go by and rub past a rock. My fire goby actually does it on the gravel real quick.

Tank is fairly young, set up early December of 2011.

Fish and When added:

Purple firefish - March
Algae blenny - February
True perc clown - December
Diamond goby - February
Royal gramma - January
Blood fire shrimp - December
Cleaner shrimp - December
CUC - December
GBTA - March
Then various corals – Since December

6 bulb fixture over the tank, all bulbs recently changed in the last two months, did a bulb a week. All equipment is HOB, skimmer…refugium…65lbs of rock. I just noticed this starting last week or so, starting with the Royal Gramma.

If you need any more info please let me know.

 

[tommy tomato]

It could be marine velvet. do you see any other signs? rapid breathing, velvety looking scales? the thing with velvet is, if you see those signs it may be too late. if all of your fish are flashing, it will be best to pull them all out and put them in a hospital tank, because they obviously have something. better to treat now while theyre still healthy. you can use copper to treat, but that is hard on fish. I would recommend doing a freshwater dip to cover flukes then put them in a hospital tank and treat with both chloroquine for velvet and hyposalinity to cover ich. good luck!

 

[BfishLpond78]

Do you think it would be easier to pull all my corals? They are all frags, except for an elegance and a GBTA and put them in their own tank instead of trying to catch all the fish?

 

[tommy tomato]

you should never treat in your DT. even if you just do hypo, you will have a ton of die off. the tank will cycle over again... all your pods and good organisms in your sandbed and rock will all die. the bacteria and fish will be all that remain. then if you start adding chemicals, they may never come out. especially copper. once copper is used in a tank you can never put an invert or coral in it again.

use your 20L that will be fine. drain your water low and catch the fish. setup your 20L with water from the DT, get a sponge filter. I keep a sponge filter in my sump for this purpose so it will have bacteria on it ready to go whenver i need it. in your case you will need to build bacteria so you will need to do water changes often to keep ammonia in check. remember to slowly drop your salinity to 1.010-1.009. you can drop salinity over the course of a few hours, but when you bring it back up do it over a couple of days.

keep them in the hospital tank 4-6 weeks, during this time keep your DT fallow and all the parasites will die. your tank will be disease free after this, so make sure to quarantine any new fish for 4 weeks to avoid this problem in the future...

 

[BfishLpond78]

I do have a spondge in my HOB fuge...its been in there for only a week or two...

I was also told to treat with garlic xtreme...as it does help

Also...i did add Rox .08 carbon recently...would that have caused anything?

 

[MrTuskfish]

Some of your questions:
1.)Flashing isn't what we did in college, its a quick rub against a rock (etc.) by a fish. 2.)Presumably to scratch or dislodge a parasite. Its a real sign of parasites.
2.)The carbon won't cause this.
3.)Garlic MAY have some good properties, but will do nothing to cure any parasite infestation; that's one of the biggest myths in the hobby.

I'd suggest you get a HT/QT ready, read the stickies above that relate to ich, velvet, etc. Have a lot of water mixed, you'll need it for WCs to control ammonia in the HT. You may have some time (but don't put it off) if its ich; if its velvet, you could start losing fish today. I'd Goggle, include images, "marine ich" and "marine velvet"; you should start seeing spots or other symptoms soon. After this is all over; I'd strongly suggest you use a QT with all new fish and, hopefully, avoiding it happen again.

 

[BfishLpond78]

Ok...will attempt to get all fish...should I put some PVC in there so they can hide?

 

[MrTuskfish]

Ok...will attempt to get all fish...should I put some PVC in there so they can hide?

Yes, PVC is perfect in a HT/QT. No rock or substrate, though.