Midas Blenny Scratching - no white spots

[NCReefDude]

Hi everyone,

I have had my Midas blenny for about a month now, with the only additions to the tank being a pair of clownfish about a week after I got the blenny. For approximately the last four-five days, my Midas blenny has started to scratch against the rocks and almost constantly swim against the current of my return flow nozzles. It is eating perfectly fine, sleeps in its cave at night, and comes up to the front of the tank with all the other fish as well, but for some reason during the day it is doing this weird type of behavior. The tank is a 50g reef 20g sump that's been set up about three months, and I religiously do 20% weekly water changes.

I'm confused because nothing else in the tank is showing any symptoms similar to this, but I can't figure out when is irritating the poor thing. I did a water test and noticed that my calcium and mag were low and my dkh was about 9, so I dosed the Calc and Mag to get it up, but stopped because I was wondering if that was irritating it somehow. I also did a boost of microbactor7 for the two weeks to boost bio filtration but stopped once I noticed this as well.

Should I grab a thing of kick-ich and do a cycle to see if that does anything g just in case? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NCReefDude]

I actually just discovered that it isn't sleeping in it's cave but is sleeping on the overflow wall vertically right under the return where it swims all day...

 

[Louis Z]

Possibly flukes . A freshwater dip would be a good try . Sometimes the shock will drop the the attached flukes . Then look for it again. . If still happens try a formalin dip . Unfortunately it being in your display tank may mean there is more of whatever it is in the tank. So I would move to a treatment tank and observe . With marine fish I always QT and treat if necessary . On some fish species I treat from the beginning . I also ask if the fish is breathing fast and can't seem to get enough oxygen . If it gets worse over a few days time then this could be amyloodinium http://agrilife.org/fisheries/files...mportant-Parasite-of-Cultured-Marine-Fish.pdf

 

[JustinM]

I agree that it may be flukes but being that your fish is swimming into the flow, I would FW dip sooner than later. This is usually a sign of marine velvet but can also just mean the gills are heavily infested with some parasite. The dip will give the fish relief as well. Fish will not always show the white spots from ich or even velvet. The FW dip will confirm flukes or something else.

Prazipro is reef safe so it can be used in your display tank. I have used it with no ill effects. Some have stated their feather dusters may die but non of mine did.

Kick-ich will do nothing for ich. Like Louis said, do a FW dip and check for flukes. If no flukes come off I would observe for other symptoms of ich or velvet.

 

[NCReefDude]

Thank you both. I'll try to scoop it out and dip him to see, and I'll call my LFS to see if they have prazipro in stock (hopefully).