Sand Rubbing

[JLee60]

Recently, my Midas Blenny has been doing nose dives to the sand to rub either of it's sides as if to scratch. There are no signs of rashes or parasites on his body. Feeding frozen food with garlic and Zoe. Water changes every week. Any ideas on what this might be and any suggestions on how to treat?

 

[Big G]

You could consider doing a freshwater dip to check for external parasites like flukes.

There are three basic types of flukes that generally attach in different areas. One type usually goes for the skin, another goes for the gills and the last one goes for the eyes. Could be one or all of them bothering your MB. The FW dip works best for the skin flukes and they readily spasm and fall off. The ones in the gills will also come off but some will be protected by the mucous within the gills. The ones in the eyes sometimes react, but usually require a QT treatment of longer duration with a praziquantel product like Prazipro or General Cure. And sometimes they are tough to remove and hypo works pretty good, and is a chemical free treatment. It just takes time. It's very difficult to see flukes in the small eyes on this size of fish.

 

[JLee60]

Moving to QT. Would copper be a good way to start?

 

[dbsehorn24]

Just bringing this thread back up. Did you find out the reason? My Midas does the same but is completely healthy. My protein skimmer has been spitting out a good amount of micro bubbles so I’m assuming that is it.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just bringing this thread back up. Did you find out the reason? My Midas does the same but is completely healthy. My protein skimmer has been spitting out a good amount of micro bubbles so I’m assuming that is it.

It could be bubbles or particles in the water, but gill flukes can also cause that without any other major symptoms (at first). You'll want to watch for increased scratching or the fish breathing faster. If you see that, you may need to dose the tank with Prazipro, 2x, nine days apart to see if that helps.

Jay

 

[ajtomase]

Recently, my Midas Blenny has been doing nose dives to the sand to rub either of it's sides as if to scratch. There are no signs of rashes or parasites on his body. Feeding frozen food with garlic and Zoe. Water changes every week. Any ideas on what this might be and any suggestions on how to treat?

Do you still have the blenny? What happened to it after taking the nose dives?