Scratching hawkfish

[Siren's Eye]

Should I be concerned? I just bought my hawkfish 3 days ago and I've noticed every once in awhile he'll just dive off a rock and scratch his face in the sand. He looks perfectly healthy. He's very active and eats well (he just had 2 good sized ghost shrimp)
Could he just be crazy? He's the only fish I have in the tank right now. I want to get a cleaner shrimp but will he eat it?

[CaddyofClowns]

Hawkfish are susceptible to many types of parasites.

If you can catch him. I'd give him a ten minute dip in dechlorinated Freshwater.

[Beverly]

Hawkfish will eat any shrimp in the tank. I learned that lesson the expensive, hard way :mad:

Freshwater baths or dips will not get rid of ick, if that is what the fish has. Learned that the expensive, hard way, too :(

There is a forum dedicated to Fish Disease Treatment. You'll find all kinds of help there:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=87

HTH.

[sw-addict]

sounds like the begining of ich. I would try to catch him and put him in a hospital tank and keep an eye on him for a while if it is ich you will notice little white spots in no time. Treatment in display tank is a bad idea. If you notice any parasite try looking at wetwebmedia.com there you can identify and figure a tretment for this.

[GSchiemer]

If the fish is eating, then leave it alone. Hawkfish rarely succumb to parasitic diseases. Catching it; dipping it; treating it prophylactically will only exacerbate the problem. In the meantime, don't add any more fish.

Greg