hippo tang

[ReeferMO85]

I have some concerns about my blue hippo tang. I bought it very tiny, it is about 1". It came looking pretty healthyn about two weeks ago. Recently I noticed that its belly gets very lumpy/ bulgy from time to time and then goes down. Even when it is down it is still a little lumpy. Is this normal? What could be causing this? Also, today I noticed what look like scrap marks on one side of its body. It looks like it scraped the blue off on a rock and now there is a whitish line. Any idea what that could be? I really hope it is not diseased. Sorry I don't have pictures, I can be more discriptive if it need be. Please add comments. Thanks.

 

[Asuran]

lumpy could be just the food that it has eaten... when my tangs were small they would exhibit the same thing espcially after eating pellet foods.

scratching could be a few things... hopefully not ich but small hippo tangs like to hide and fell secure and it could just be a scratch when going in and coming out of the rocks... if you see constant flashing against rocks then it maybe ich. as long as you dont see little grains of white dots it should be ok. are they tankmates in there that may be giving the tang a hard time?

 

[spoiledcats]

My hippo tang is 6 years old and still scrapes himself on the rocks sometimes. They like to go into the smallest places, and mine is pretty fat so naturally he scrapes against the rock. You will notice, the scrape will go away in a day or 2 if that is actually what caused it.

 

[ReeferMO85]

That makes me feel a lot better, he does hide in the littlest crevices possible. I really don't think it is ich, I keep my tank very clean. Does ich effect everyone in the tank if it occurs? Also a have cleaner shrimp and I've heard that they help to protect against it. Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[spoiledcats]

Yes, most fish can get ich if it is in your tank. There are different opinions about whether cleaner shrimp will take care of ich. I had a slight outbreak of ich about a year ago, and the cleaner shrimp did take care of it. I think if the outbreak is bad though, they can't keep up with it.