Love bites???

[WDLV]

I came home to this and it freaked me out a little. Are these pre-spawning "love bites" from the female? There's like five on one side and one on the other. The scales look slightly damaged on those areas.

 

[Samcro]

ouch!! damn

now you have that song in my head.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MQSkIFhuli0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[WDLV]

No video necessary. It was in my head before posting!

 

[WDLV]

When ths problem carried over to the female, I quarantined them and put them in hypo for a couple weeks. I put them back in their main display a couple days ago (Saturday) and last night they both had the splotches again. I don't think it was the hypo that cured them but rather time out of the main system. I noticed last night that there were very large blotches on them and smaller ones this morning but in different places. Then it hit me. The friends I had asked offline about this are both very experienced with mating pairs and they've never seen this. I personally have had a lot of different species of clowns and never saw this (to my recollection.) So I asked myself; "self, what is in the display that's not in the quarrantine tank that my more experienced breeder friends have not typically contended with?" Answer - Aptasia and bristle worms! So, I'm putting my money on one of the two. This might also explain the missing scales, as they would be inclined to wipe off any irritant on the rocks.


Female -

Female -

Male -

 

[MarinaP]

My caps had the same problem. It looked bizzare. I think it is light-relalted. When they did not come out for a long time from their anemones, they will get these splotches. They spawned without any problems, so I do not think you should worry about them.

 

[WDLV]

That scared the poo out of me... but anyway, it did occur to me that it might have something to do with re-introduction to the BTAs as they went in Saturday evening and didn't go back into the BTAs until Sunday some time. When I saw them Sunday night there were the splotches again.

 

[WDLV]

I did figure out the spots and it wasn't aptasia. It was the fire worms. I got home last night and started cleaning the tank walls and syphoning detritus when the spots popped up again on my female. her whole belly was white. Beneath her was a large bristle worm. On closer inspection there were bristleworm spines in her belly where it was white. I made quick work of the bristle worm and any smaller ones I could find in the display (there are still a couple small corals to hide under.)