fish itching on sand/rocks bad?

i have a 240gal sps tank. i know i cant put copper in the tank and dont want to risk using chemicals. in feb i had a plague (ich). i waited until early april to start stocking fish again. i have 2 anthias,2 chalkline basslets,1devil damsile(the lone surviver),1 scopas tang, 1 fire shrimp,1cleaner shrimp,1 coral banded shrimp.the basslets are scatching themselfs on the substrate and rocks. the anthias are doing it occassionally as well. the cleaner shrimp does his job and is pretty aggressive at it. none the less it concerns me. i use rods reef and mysis shrimp along with vita chem and kent garlic extreme. i wana start slowly stocking more fish but dont wana over do it. there are no sighns of ich on the fish. is this a sighn of something or am i too nervous. if not what else can i do for teatment.

 

What is your params?
Possible ammonia spike with the fish additions and ammonia burn?

 

ammonia inbetween 0-.25 closer to 0
ph 8.4
no2 0
no3 o
salinity .023

 

usually indicates parasites...If you can catch them and give them a freshwater dip, you will usually see the parasites come off. If not just keep your water healthy and keep doing what you are doing. They will run their coarse and the fish's immune system will handle it. I would not add anything else in until this improves though.

 

ich is to fish as the common cold is to humans- with a healthy environment and good diet, it flies by in no time.

Btw, copper will kill any inverts and corals- before you try using something of that nature.

Just keep up with good water quality and you shouldn't have a problem (that is if it's ich) Do you see the typical tiny white specks on the fish's body/fins?... there are several other nasty infestations that can devestate tanks quite quickly despite all efforts being given.

 

sounds like parasites

as mentioned i would go with a frshwater dip

 

Freshwater dips are very stressful to the fish, yes it might get the ick off the fish, but it will be stressed when you put back in DT and will only get it back. I would not recommend freshwater dips. If you must, you can treat in a QT with copper. As long as there eating and other wise ok, just let them ride it out.

 

I second this. 99% of the time a freshwater dip is only going to make things worse.
I would vary the diet much more. What are you doing for veggies? Do you have a grounding probe?
It will be tough kicking this quickly because of the poor water quality, but I wouldn't panic yet. Just keep feeding them a high quality, varied diet. If they stop eating, they will need to be removed and put in a HT with meds.

 

The symptoms sound like Ich.

Definetly not what you want to hear, but I'd QT the fish in a hospital tank and treat the parasite before things get worse.

 

hey was wondering if you would be able to help
i have the same worry, i have a sailfin tang that i just got 2 days ago. i can see one or two spots on it but im not alarmed because i havnt seen it rubbing against rocks just yet. but i have seen it constatly eat bubbles on the surface. i have a 2 clown fish and mandarine fish that seem to be as normal. they are all eating fine and my water seems to be ok, is this a normal thing for tangs to do?