Flashing fish but otherwise healthy

[SOGavity]

I have an 88 gallon reef I set up around June. I had a 40 gallon set up before this in January. In june, that tank got velvet and all fish died within 3 days of each other. The corals survived of course, so I went and purchased a custom made 88 gallon and using the velvet covered rocks and filter media, I set it up and waited. I've learned some things since then but now I'm scared again. And honestly, this might be what breaks the camels back if I lose any fish this time.

I didn't add my "new" first fish until August, wanting to make sure there was no risk of velvet. I got a damsel, quarantined him in copper for a few weeks, then put him into my display tank. Three weeks after and with the damsel sill alive and well, I started adding more and more fish and corals. I added my last fish about two weeks ago, a coral beauty.

3 days ago I noticed the coral beauty wasn't acting like it's active self. Staying mostly to a cave, only coming out to "peck" at food. I imagine he's eating more than I'm seeing since he's on the chunkier side of things. I haven't seen him flash. The damsel is also less active until feeding time. When feeding, he races to the food. But hes rarely out and about like he used to be. I haven't seen him flash neither.

Now for the flashing fish... which are my tomini Tang and Convict tang. They are out and about, pecking at the rocks, eating...

No body has white spots. No one is breathing hard, or swimming upstream. 2 are less active and the other are flashing, and that's it.

But... i had purchased the tomini Tang and a fanged blenny at the same time about a month ago. The blenny slowly starved himself to death and was also flashing. I put him into a quarantine tank with copper after doing a freshwater bath. There didn't seem to be any flukes, but I'm still new at this. Eventually (about two weeks ago) the blenny died.

because I live in Canada, meds are practically impossible to get. But I do have some Kanaplex. But im not sure if that is safe for me to treat the whole display tank with corals, which is what I'd prefer to do. It would be hard and stressful for all involved to catch all these fish and quarantine them. I'd do it if I had to though.

Any advice?

temp 75F
Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.0
Alkalinity 10
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Phosphates 0.25
Calcium 520
Magnesium 1410

 

[fishywishy]

Flashing doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem, it could just be simple things like particles in the water or other non disease related things.

I think what happened with the blenny is that it had internal parasites and it just scummed to it.

If it is a disease it’s probably ich or flukes, but most likely flukes if you did the copper right, and because you said the CB and the damsel aren’t as active anymore. To treat flukes you either need prazi pro, or you can do a hyposalinity (which doesn’t require any meds so you don’t have to worry about that).

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have an 88 gallon reef I set up around June. I had a 40 gallon set up before this in January. In june, that tank got velvet and all fish died within 3 days of each other. The corals survived of course, so I went and purchased a custom made 88 gallon and using the velvet covered rocks and filter media, I set it up and waited. I've learned some things since then but now I'm scared again. And honestly, this might be what breaks the camels back if I lose any fish this time.

I didn't add my "new" first fish until August, wanting to make sure there was no risk of velvet. I got a damsel, quarantined him in copper for a few weeks, then put him into my display tank. Three weeks after and with the damsel sill alive and well, I started adding more and more fish and corals. I added my last fish about two weeks ago, a coral beauty.

3 days ago I noticed the coral beauty wasn't acting like it's active self. Staying mostly to a cave, only coming out to "peck" at food. I imagine he's eating more than I'm seeing since he's on the chunkier side of things. I haven't seen him flash. The damsel is also less active until feeding time. When feeding, he races to the food. But hes rarely out and about like he used to be. I haven't seen him flash neither.

Now for the flashing fish... which are my tomini Tang and Convict tang. They are out and about, pecking at the rocks, eating...

No body has white spots. No one is breathing hard, or swimming upstream. 2 are less active and the other are flashing, and that's it.

But... i had purchased the tomini Tang and a fanged blenny at the same time about a month ago. The blenny slowly starved himself to death and was also flashing. I put him into a quarantine tank with copper after doing a freshwater bath. There didn't seem to be any flukes, but I'm still new at this. Eventually (about two weeks ago) the blenny died.

because I live in Canada, meds are practically impossible to get. But I do have some Kanaplex. But im not sure if that is safe for me to treat the whole display tank with corals, which is what I'd prefer to do. It would be hard and stressful for all involved to catch all these fish and quarantine them. I'd do it if I had to though.

Any advice?

temp 75F
Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.0
Alkalinity 10
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Phosphates 0.25
Calcium 520
Magnesium 1410

For best assessment, please post a video of at least 30 seconds under white light intensity. Please also follow advice from fish medics to avoid mis-information. Flashing can be from stress, flukes, skin irritation and aggression as examples.

 

[ILikeFish!]

Im doing a hypo salinity right now because my fish had flukes and a lot of what’s happening to you also happened to me, so it could be flukes. But Im not a fish doctor so It could just be nothing like the other guys are saying.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have an 88 gallon reef I set up around June. I had a 40 gallon set up before this in January. In june, that tank got velvet and all fish died within 3 days of each other. The corals survived of course, so I went and purchased a custom made 88 gallon and using the velvet covered rocks and filter media, I set it up and waited. I've learned some things since then but now I'm scared again. And honestly, this might be what breaks the camels back if I lose any fish this time.

I didn't add my "new" first fish until August, wanting to make sure there was no risk of velvet. I got a damsel, quarantined him in copper for a few weeks, then put him into my display tank. Three weeks after and with the damsel sill alive and well, I started adding more and more fish and corals. I added my last fish about two weeks ago, a coral beauty.

3 days ago I noticed the coral beauty wasn't acting like it's active self. Staying mostly to a cave, only coming out to "peck" at food. I imagine he's eating more than I'm seeing since he's on the chunkier side of things. I haven't seen him flash. The damsel is also less active until feeding time. When feeding, he races to the food. But hes rarely out and about like he used to be. I haven't seen him flash neither.

Now for the flashing fish... which are my tomini Tang and Convict tang. They are out and about, pecking at the rocks, eating...

No body has white spots. No one is breathing hard, or swimming upstream. 2 are less active and the other are flashing, and that's it.

But... i had purchased the tomini Tang and a fanged blenny at the same time about a month ago. The blenny slowly starved himself to death and was also flashing. I put him into a quarantine tank with copper after doing a freshwater bath. There didn't seem to be any flukes, but I'm still new at this. Eventually (about two weeks ago) the blenny died.

because I live in Canada, meds are practically impossible to get. But I do have some Kanaplex. But im not sure if that is safe for me to treat the whole display tank with corals, which is what I'd prefer to do. It would be hard and stressful for all involved to catch all these fish and quarantine them. I'd do it if I had to though.

Any advice?

temp 75F
Salinity 1.026
Ph 8.0
Alkalinity 10
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Phosphates 0.25
Calcium 520
Magnesium 1410

Depending on the frequency, flashing is almost always a sign of flukes. You’ll sometimes see fish flash if there is a lot of detritus in the water, but that is fairly rare in reef tanks.
Flashing combined with behavior changes, but no spots and no rapid breathing is pretty much definitive for flukes.
Trouble is, praziquantel is the only reef safe treatment, and getting that in Canada is tough. Hyposalinity for 30 days will work, but of course that cannot be done if invertebrates are present.

 

[Lavey29]

If it's infrequent flashing he could be marking territory too