whats up with my blenny?

i woke up this morning and my starry blenny was covered in sand. at first i thought it was funny..hes quite the character and is always getting into stuff. but then a few minutes later i noticed he was in the corner of the tank on the bottom wiggling/twitching/itching on the sand. i didnt see any markings on him like when he got stung by the anemone. could he have ich? or am i just being paranoid?

 

What you describe is called, flashing.

Could be many causes, may not be anything. It be sign that it's trying to relieve it's self of some type of parasite, but unless you actually see marine ich I would not worry.

Put up an image if this continues or gets worse.

 

ok thanks. but actually he does have ich. i see the white spots now. does that mean i have to take everyone out or just him

 

If he is eating just feed him quality foods.

Marine ich is in your tank, you just can not see it on every fish. It's not a matter of it spreading to other fish, if they become stressed you will see it you just can not right now because of the life stage the parasite is in and the other fish are not symptomatic.

If you remove him and treat him you will have to treat the entire display tank other wise you just reintroduce the fish to a system that still has marine ich.

There are several current threads on this forum with regard to marine ich, research research, research and make an informed choice on how aggressive you want to proceed. Go slow, you are not going to make a significant change in the out come until you know how to effectively proceed.

 

oh man this sucks. ok thank for your help.

 

Do you have other fish in the tank?
If not you can try removing the starry blenny and placing him in QT for a month to a month and a half and leave the tank fishless, That way the ich will die off when it goes through it's life cycle and doesnt have a fish to host on

Ich typically has a 28 day life cycle but I would give it an extra week or two just to be safe

Also are you sure that it is actually ich on the fish and not just micro bubbles or some detritus it picked up from being covered in sand?

 

no im not possitive. im starting to think im just paranoid. hes a starry blenny and has spots all over him..so its hard to tell. plus hes very clumsy and bumps into everything, and a bully and picks fights. hes gotten stung by the anemone before. we just put in a new plate and could have been stung by that. i can still see his pattern under the new spots so im seriously rethinking the ich. and maybe hes just actually itchy from being stung. but we are going to take him out and watch him in his own tank for a few days see what happens. and yes we have at about 6 other fish in the tank so if it is ich it wont be an easy fix. but like i said i think its just him being dumb and getting too close to things hes not supposed to. if it is a parasite i dont think its ich. i think its something else...just not sure what yet

 

Good news he's fine we qt him for two days all the sand fell off and bo white spots are visible must have just been detritus thanks for all your help and suggestions!

 

you can put some plant fertilizer and that will cure the ick right up

 

Is this true?