Is this flashing?

TikiBird · Jan 26, 2017

Today I noticed my lawnmower blenny was doing a weird maneuver. I watched him for 45 minutes and he did it four times. I only saw him touch the rocks, but I finally filmed him doing it on the sand:
Is that flashing? [emoji15]

Breakthecycle2 · Jan 26, 2017

TikiBird · Jan 26, 2017

Breakthecycle2 said:
Yes.

Gah!

melypr1985 · Jan 26, 2017

Yes. That's what we mean when we say "flashing or scratching". He was targeting his gill area which leads us to believe he has a parasite in the gill bothering him. Can you do a freshwater dip on him to check for flukes?

Humblefish · Jan 26, 2017

Yes; he's targeting the gills. Likely parasites or worms inside his gills.

TikiBird · Jan 26, 2017

Thanks @Breakthecycle2, @melpyr1985 and @Humblefish! Much appreciated. I saw it but didn't want to believe. [emoji24]

Yes I can do a freshwater dip. I've been reading old threads about it; this is maybe a silly question, but I thought I saw somewhere that it was ok to do a dip with freshwater aquarium water (instead of RODI)? Is that true?

Breakthecycle2 · Jan 26, 2017

Humblefish said:
Yes; he's targeting the gills. Likely parasites or worms inside his gills.

What gets rid of worms?

Humblefish · Jan 26, 2017

TikiBird said:
I thought I saw somewhere that it was ok to do a dip with freshwater aquarium water (instead of RODI)? Is that true?

Yes, that is actually ideal because the water should already be oxygenated and at proper temp. Squirt a little SW in the dip water to bring the pH up.

Breakthecycle2 said:
What gets rid of worms?

External (flukes) = Prazipro

Internal (intestinal) = Metronidazole or sometimes prazi, depending upon the species

TikiBird · Jan 26, 2017

Awesome, thanks @Humblefish!! I just tried catching him but he is clever and hid down inside my rockwork. I'll take the rocks out tomorrow and get him out. Will report back. Thank you again!!

TikiBird · Jan 27, 2017

@Humblefish and @melypr1985, I'm going to do the FW dip tonight...if it IS revealed to be flukes, that means I just treat with prazipro? And I can use that in the DT, right?

TikiBird · Jan 27, 2017

@Humblefish and @melpyr1985, sorry for the double post... did the FW dip and I saw no flukes. Does this mean it's ich? Or something else?

Edit to add: I saw some tiny black specks...but I thought I had read flukes were white?

Edit to add: the black specks could just be sand.

Humblefish · Jan 27, 2017

@TikiBird Sounds like a parasite (such as ich) is more of a possibility.

About the black specks ... Have you ever seen any of these on any of your fish? https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-ich-turbellarians.259912/

TikiBird · Jan 27, 2017

Humblefish said:
@TikiBird Sounds like a parasite (such as ich) is more of a possibility.

About the black specks ... Have you ever seen any of these on any of your fish? https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-ich-turbellarians.259912/

Hmmm I don't see those BUT it's hard to see any specific spots on the lawnmower blenny because of his mottled coloring. But I definitely haven't seen them on my clowns that share the tank. I haven't heard of those at all before though, so very interesting!

I've got the hospital tank set up and am in the process of moving the three fish over from the main tank to treat them for ich and go fallow in the main tank.

Gonna be a long 76 days. Lol It's totally my own fault for not QTing everything before adding it! [emoji21]

Thanks very much for your help, @Humblefish!! Much appreciated Humble and @melypr1985. Thanks for helping me fix my bad decisions.

TikiBird · Jan 28, 2017

Another question, please @Humblefish and @melypr1985--before putting them in the hospital tank, do I need to do a FW dip on my two other fish that were in the tank with the blenny, even though they didn't show symptoms?