A Couple of Questions(with pictures)

[TinaFoster]

Here are a couple of my fish today. I took a chance moving my bicolor blenny from my 29G nano to the 90G because I wanted to break the small tank down. It just won't pull out of the diatoms/algae thing. Also moved a six line wrasse. Last week I moved the royal gramma also from the nano to the 90. Well the lawnmower blenny that lived in the 90 first hasn't even blinked at the bicolor blenny BUT the royal gramma, who lived with it in a smaller tank, is being a butthead. SO my first question is, will this settle down in time? And my second question is, there's a lot of white stuff that settles on my rocks. Here since all the fuss is going on you can see it flying around, especially in front of the blenny. If it wasn't in motion it would look in the photo like he's got ich, and there were a few spots on him and the wrasse that prompted me to take pics today. However, some of them have flaked off in all the activity so I'm thinking it has to be this white stuff. What is this white stuff, and is it something I can prevent? Or is it something that just is in tanks?
Remember, I'm new this year to saltwater. Freshwater had its own things and in time I learned those, but here I know virtually nothing yet.

 

[soccerbag]

Likely just going through some territory disputes and that is pretty common when fish are introduced to a new tank - they are rush to find the best hiding spots. As for the white spots, the move was likely pretty stressful on the fish - moves usually are. It looks like there are spots on the blenny. Not seeing much on the gramma. The Blenny may have ich from the stress of the move. It is always present in tanks - it just takes something like a move to bring it to life. As for the white stuff on the rocks, could that sand from the bottom of the tank? The fish may be stirring it up.

 

[Lateral72]

The problem is that the Royal Gramma and Bicolor Blenny are too similarly colored. It may settled down, it might not. Even though they were together in the 29G, since you moved the Royal Gramma into the 90G before the blenny, he established it as his, and does not want intruders into his territory.

 

[TinaFoster]

It could be sand. I do have a diamond goby and I did do a water change last night. The blenny seems to kick it up a lot when he's squeezing through the holes on the rocks, whatever it is. Here he is just a few minutes later. Some is stuck on him around his head, but is irregular in shape. Others of it isn't there. I hope he doesn't ich out, I just let this tank go fallow for almost 6

weeks and he was in the nano for more than 3 months with no ich in the tank, and no new fish, so hoping for the best. But just in case, how fast ca

n a fish get ich? He's been in the 90 just a couple of hours. There was nothing on him or around him when I moved him. Thanks for your help Craig!

 

[TinaFoster]

Geez I need to learn to use this forum properly! The pics just went in random places this time.

 

[TinaFoster]

Todd, is there any amount of time I should be giving it to calm down before separating them again? I did african cichlids for a long while and they were like this but would usually calm down within the first week if the stress didn't kill one of them first. Is it the same for marine fish, or is that childsplay compared to these guys?

 

[TinaFoster]

I wonder what's gonna happen when I put the hippo tang back in the 90? He's the reason the tank went fallow! If someone fights with him could he develop ich all over again even if it is gone from the tank and from him for 6 weeks?

 

[lps1212]

i believe if you go by that 6 week quote and notice no visible signs of ich i believe you should be ok ich might come if there is consistant fighting going on

 

[TinaFoster]

Good news! Mama's paranoid! Everything's calmed down in the tank, and all the spots that were on the blenny and the wrasse are gone. No one has a dot on them. It must have been debris from darting through the rocks after all. Now to find out for sure if that's sand dust or something else and one more stressful thing to get through--moving of the hippo tang in a couple of days--and life will be good!

 

[Lateral72]

You can wait as long as you want, but if the aggression continues, the blenny will likely be killed.

If it's easy for you to catch the Gramma, then there is no reason at all to wait to remove him and put him in "time-out". Then after about a week, reaquascape the rocks a bit and reintroduce the Gramma.

 

[TinaFoster]

Thanks Todd! Things have dramatically improved, but I'll still(being the paranoid person I am when it comes to my fish)watch for things to escalate again. If they do, the gramma will be the one to get put in the corner, for sure! Right now, they're swimming past eachother like nothing happened.