Spotted Bullhead Scratching

[wwajfd]

I have a 6 year old 14 and a half inch Spotted Bullhead (Ameiurus serracanthus) in a 125 gallon tank. For the the last couple of months he has been scratching himself on rocks and the gravel. It started at his tail and is working its way to the front up his peduncke to his anal fins. I have had Black Bullheads before they never did this. Is this normal in Spotted Bullheads?

[Viktor Jarikov]

I've never heard of such behavior as normal, except sometimes it may look like that when fish are spawning... but this is obvously not it. Something's wrong. This most often happens for one of the two reasons: either high ammonia irritates their skin or external parasites like ich, flukes, worms do.

What is "it" in this sentence? "It started at his tail and is working its way to the front up his peduncke to his anal fins."

Complete water parameters, WC schedule, diet, tank mates, biofiltration, description of the tank history and any recent changes, a pic of the fish and the tank may help us help you.

[wwajfd]

The "it"in that statement is the scratches and looks like his skin is molting. Well, He has been in his 125 since February. Before that he was in a 55 gallon tank. He is in the tank by himself for the most part. He does however have some guppies in there which he eats, but he doesn't eat them fast enough so they reproduce. his main diet is Tetra Pond sticks and occasionally chicken liver. I change his water about every 2 weeks. He has an Emperor 400 back filter and 2 sponge filters with a power head. The odd thing is that in the last year and a half he has started to swim around trying to attack when vacuuming the floor outside the tank or Hydrocleaning inside the tank.

[Richard B]

The attacking when vacuuming/hydrocleaning is easy to explain. Your fish is now of sufficient size/age that it sees you as a threat to his/her territory

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thanks for the write-up.

Without water parameters, at a minimum temp, pH, NH3, NO2 and NO3, it is impossible to even start helping you. If you don't own and use a good test kit (like a $25 API Master Kit, liquid), it is a good time to start now.

I change his water about every 2 weeks.

What is the % you change every 2 weeks? It may be quite insufficient. I'd do at least 50% weekly. He may be alone but he is a large, bulky fish with good appetite = big bio-load.