Help with damsel
 

Hey everyone,

I have started a damsel tank and my blue devil has been acting weird. After I feed him he will turn on his side very quickly and then flip back. He still has all his color and is eating fine, so is this just some weird thing that he does or is it a sign of something else?

Does he do this against rocks? Almost as if he is scratching himself?

Yeah, he does that every once and a while. But it is mainly just when he is eating, he will kinda twitch and roll on his side.

If the little fella is putting himself on the rock to scratch every so often, it's a safe bet to say he is infected with ich.

Time to set up a hospital tank, There are only two proven ways to cure a saltwater of Ich, copper and hyposalinity.*Neither treatments can be used in the main display aquarium if there are*invertebrates*present, so the treatment must be used in a quarantine tank.

Hyposalinity is the preferred treatment among the online reef forums because it is not as dangerous to the fish and it is thought to ease osmotic stress on the fish. Hyposalinity is adjusting the salinity of your aquarium’s water to a specific gravity of 1.010 to treat Ich.* Hypo means under or below, hence lowering your salinity below normal levels.* Hyposalinity should be in a quarantine tank with all your fish in it, lowering the specific gravity by doing water changes every 12-24 hours with less salt. Once the salinity of 1.010 is achieved then the water should be maintained with this specific gravity for 6 weeks.

Copper treatment is toxic to fish and invertebrates every reefer should now that copper and a reef tank do not mix. If you should choose to use copper treatment make sure that you use a quarantine tank and label the tank copper so you do not use the tank in the future for anything other than quarantine.

When using copper make sure you are testing it with a copper test kit that is the same as the copper treatment you are using. As of right now there are two typs of copper treatment that are used they are chelated copper and ionic copper.* Copper binds to any calcium carbonate so it should be used in a bare bottom tank only.

There are other treatments such as Uv lights, Diatom filters and raising temperatures but none are as effective when combating marine Ich as hyposalinity in my humble opinion.

Good luck !

Okay, well it looks like something new to fix! lol

Sorry I did forget to mention, it will be a good idea to not add any new fish to your main display aquarium for the full six weeks, this will starve the ich that could possibly be living in the sand bed while the tank is fish free.

So if you are in the LFS and are feeling like picking up a new tank mate until the damsels are all better from the hospital tank; you will know it's a good plan to hold back :wink:

Do you feed him flake food that stays on the surface by any chance? My first clown fish I ever owned would do that if she ate flakes off the surface....I think she would take in air as well as food making her belly want to float :mrgreen:

IMO, I think you are jumping the gun in giving this advice. Reason is that I have a Sohal Tang that scratches himself on rock and on the sandbed, he has done it almost everyday for the last 2 years I had him. One thing to note here is that he has never had displayed symptons of ICH, and is a my prize fish.

Maybe sometimes a fish can be quirky. I would not just say it has ich and start treating.... Just don't do it. Also if there is ICH, I am not a believer of treatment. A healthy fish and tank will heal without copper, hypo or quarantining.

just my 2 cents.

Better to be safe than sorry, no harm in playing it safe.

Just me 98 cents,

Well I think I will wait it out and see what happens in the next week or so. Thanks for all your help.