Tang scratching himself

[adidas]

My tang seems to be scratching himself on rocks a lot lately, is this bad? does it mean he has a parasite or something??


TIA

[adidas]

actually, all my fish are doing it.. hmmmmmm

[Bob I]

Fish scratching themselves is often not a good thing, but there are numerous causes.

[Beverly]

Have you put any new fish, inverts, corals, LR, sand in your tank lately?

When I see my fish scratching on the rocks, I always look at them closely a couple of days later for signs of ich.

[Snappy]

Some tangs are ich magnets. I had the same problem so I added in a cleaner wrasse and a few cleaner shrimp and they now get their back's scratched by them instead. Works for me in my tank. Since adding the cleaners I have had fish with signs of ich one day and no signs the next day. Between the 2 types of cleaners all the fish seem to get worked on as there is something for everybody. Some don't like the shrimp and visit the wrasse and visa-versa. I am a rookie in the hobby so my opinion may not be worth much but for me it beats tearing down the tank to try and catch sick fish- been there, done that.

[adidas]

Originally Posted by Snappy

Some tangs are ich magnets. I had the same problem so I added in a cleaner wrasse and a few cleaner shrimp and they now get their back's scratched by them instead. Works for me in my tank. Since adding the cleaners I have had fish with signs of ich one day and no signs the next day. Between the 2 types of cleaners all the fish seem to get worked on as there is something for everybody. Some don't like the shrimp and visit the wrasse and visa-versa. I am a rookie in the hobby so my opinion may not be worth much but for me it beats tearing down the tank to try and catch sick fish- been there, done that.

I figured that was the problem. I used to have cleaner shrimp, but they were eaten. I've been meaning to pick up some more.

[muck]

Originally Posted by adidas

I figured that was the problem. I used to have cleaner shrimp, but they were eaten. I've been meaning to pick up some more.

What ate em...?

[adidas]

Originally Posted by muck

What ate em...?

I had this really picky threadfin butterfly. He ate 2 bangaii cardinals, then my shrimps started going missing. I looked in the tank in the morning and crabs were just finishing eating the leftovers