Clown knive scratching...

[Jesseliu13]

So i have 2 clown knives in side a large mosnter community tank of 125 gallons. Small, yes i know, but i will be getting a 500+ soon! so pumped! but i need my fish in good condition before the move which wont be until August. But my 2 clown knives seem to be scratching themselves on the bottom of the tank.... I have alot of other fish in there... Few are scaleless but only seems to be my clown knives... Any ideas?

 

[Jesseliu13]

clown knives are 11 and 13 inches.

 

[Blazin]

I have herd that scratching may be a sign of ick

 

[Jesseliu13]

I have herd that scratching may be a sign of ick

I did a water change and they are better now... I actually think it was the ammonia content in the water. I've been over feeding a bit... So the ammonia kinda spiked a bit. May have Burnt them causing them to itch. They are doing better now .


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[-DC-]

I did a water change and they are better now... I actually think it was the ammonia content in the water. I've been over feeding a bit... So the ammonia kinda spiked a bit. May have Burnt them causing them to itch. They are doing better now .

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I think ammonia is a safe bet,

I recently added 2 18"+ clowns to my tank, I over fed a bit to keep everyone peaceful, this combined with the introduction of 2 large fish caused a bit of a spike. Not a big deal, a few water changes will keep it in check and it's already balancing out, but i did notice the Clowns seemed to start flashing/scratching against decore/substrate almost right away, My Dat started soon after CK's must be particularly sencitive to it.

 

[FuriousFish]

Do u mean turning sideways and swimming along the bottom on their sides then coming back up? Mine has done this SAME behavior! It happend when there was a bacterial infection in the tank alot. But he still does it for no reason at all every once in the while...


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[Jesseliu13]

Do u mean turning sideways and swimming along the bottom on their sides then coming back up? Mine has done this SAME behavior! It happend when there was a bacterial infection in the tank alot. But he still does it for no reason at all every once in the while...


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I figured it out. The ph was off the charts. See if your water is too acidic. It irritated my clown knives


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[-DC-]

I figured it out. The ph was off the charts. See if your water is too acidic. It irritated my clown knives

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Interesting, My PH is pretty stable at 6.5-7 but I'll check to make sure, low PH also makes ammonia more toxic. So if the PH was very low it would not take very high levels of ammonia to start irritating the fish.

 

[FuriousFish]

I figured it out. The ph was off the charts. See if your water is too acidic. It irritated my clown knives


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I just checked... My pH is stable... Mine doesn't do it that much. I see him do it maybe once a week. When there was a disease in the tank is when it was bad. My tinfoil barb was doing it to when the disease hit...


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[-DC-]

I just checked... My pH is stable... Mine doesn't do it that much. I see him do it maybe once a week. When there was a disease in the tank is when it was bad. My tinfoil barb was doing it to when the disease hit...


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Flashing/scratching occasionally is nothing to worry about, just like any other animal it's just an itch !

Excessive flashing/scratching is a sign that somethings up, just like any animal. Could be water quality or some sort of infection, (often they go hand in hand) but it' completely normal for them to just do it every once and a while to scratch an itch.