Fish stung

[N8thanExpl0sion]

Hello

I have a mini carpet and at night it retreats into a crack between 2 rocks. I have a jawfish that changed his location in the afternoon and it happened to be underneath the open carpet.

I did not put anything together in my head in regards to how much of a bad idea this may have been so needless to say I did not try to convince him to move.

Well this morning my jawfish was acting a little weird, I did not think anything of it till later when I had my coffee. He was out in the open which is abnormal and he was on the other side of my tank where my flow is a little higher.

So now I have been working this over in my head and I suspect that he got zapped. I think he was OK with his position till the lights went out and the head of the anemone retreated. I suspect that it sensed that there was an intruder and used a zap to evict.

So my question is.. How do you know if a fish experienced a zap from an anemone? Is there anything obvious that would be an indication that he experienced a sting? Would there be a mark or some scale loss of something?

Notice I said sting.. so no wise remarks that you can tell when he is hanging out of the mouth

So to further explain the fish..
As I said he was not acting normal and there is no real telling how long he was hanging out in the open up against the cornor. I can say that he did not partake in Breakfast (he is usually a good eater) and his mouth was gasping a little bit, not too bad though.

I took my daughter to school and then returned home to take my son to school. Before I left the second time, this fish was not in the location I found him in this morning. So at first I thought that he was a gonner but nope. I found him back on the other side of the tank where he is normally found. He was in a little cave moving swimming about in there a little bit. It was not one that he dug, it is just a formation of rocks that makeup a little cave. So I was pretty happy to see him moving, I am hoping that this is a good sign.

The fish looked like it had a rough time. There was section of his tail that looked like there was a square of sand stuck to it. It as not really easy to see him so I can't say if there was anything else wrong with him. his fins looked a little ruffled but it could have been my angle.

Anyway I was just wondering if there was any way to deturmine if a fish had been stung, visually.

Who knows, maybe it was all in my head and he was just hanging out.. I can get paranoid a bit from time to time. ;-)

Thanks for reading

 

[ocellaris123]

My midas blenny got stung pretty badly from my haddoni the other day. He had white lesions on his body, along with a blue tentacle stuck to him. He fully recovered the next day

 

[elegance coral]

The thing on the fishes tail may be an anemone sting.

This is my ocellaris after a run in with my haddoni

 

[zeeter]

I don't know what a fish looks like after getting stung, but my hands/arms always break out in what looks like mosquito bites after I rub up against my ritteri. Itches like crazy, too. All the time - not like with a mosquito where it only itches after you scratch it. There's a slight burn, too.

I'm pretty sure carpets are different, though. I've never been stung by one but I understand that it's a lot like a bee sting for people who normally have minor reactions and some people actually have had to go to the hospital - though they were probably allergic.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Generally there are no signs of a fish getting stung (by nematocysts). Rarely is a fish stung badly enough to die after the fact, without being first grabbed and consumed by the anemone.

On occasion, particularly with anemones with stronger spirocysts (grabbing / holding cells), a fish may come away with parts of the anemone stuck to them (like in the photo above). This is usually not a sign of lasting damage, and will slough off in a day or two.

 

[N8thanExpl0sion]

Thanks to all with their insights. I feel much better. My fish is hiding right now so I will wait and see how it goes

Thanks again