Scat Pair Biting Off Each Other's Scales

[Ranchu]

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8899/video133740169717.mp4

Weird...

biting off each other... yet acting normally as if un-injured... they play around and feed normally

 

[roddy]

Think they have answered your question about what to keep and what to shift in your tank. Look like they are needing some salt to me.

 

[nmonks]

Quite so. These fish are fungus-ridden, and Scats being Scats, they view anything potentially edible as food. So they're biting at each other, eating the fungus (yuck!). Raise the salinity quickly, this weekend, to at least SG 1.005. Treat for fungus AND finrot (here in England, a product called ESHA 2000 does both and is cheap, effective, and formalin/copper-free).

Also, do provide more food, something the Scats can eat at their leisure. Lettuce leaves held to a lettuce clip (as you'd use for Surgeonfish) will work fine. If you don't mind the mess, you can just dump part of a lettuce in the tank and let them graze the floating leaves.

Cheers, Neale

Think they have answered your question about what to keep and what to shift in your tank. Look like they are needing some salt to me.

 

[Ranchu]

Thanks Guys...

the wounds are manageable... I'm more worried on the weird behavior... Sorry I forgot to mention the the details

1) Pair sleeps together on corner bogwood
2) Pair stays close to each other
3) many times during the day, the pair TAKES TURNS harassing and chasing each other like territorial cichlids.
4) Harassment involves actual biting off of scales..
5) then they swim again like good old friends

This is cyclic...

As a result... a lot of ugly wounds with secondary infection... sheesh...

 

[nmonks]

Whether the wounds are "manageable" or not isn't really the issue. Fish shouldn't be in this condition if kept properly. Scats will survive in freshwater conditions for a long time, but chronic problems with finrot and fungus are almost always observed, as are viral infections such as lymphocystis associated with stress.

Up the salinity quickly. Treat the wounds. If necessary, add a third or fourth scat to your collection to spread out any aggression.

Cheers, Neale

the wounds are manageable... I'm more worried on the weird behavior... Sorry I forgot to mention the the details

 

[Ranchu]

one scat... the smaller one... started punching holes on other fishes as well...

Out he goes...

Looks like i'll only keep one scat for now... the badly bruised one among the pair. Until he recuperates maybe...

yup... salinity is up now