Greetings all,
Last night I came home to something I'd never seen in my 20 years of fishkeeping. I have a small saltwater tank with 2 leaf Scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus). The smaller, red fish has been acting a bit odd (changing its color from red to yellow and back), and looked like it was about to shed its skin. When it started shedding, I saw that a large portion of the dorsal fin towards the front of the fish had come off, and the affected area included flesh below the fin, and had exposed a spine. It looks like something just suddenly ate a hole in the fish at the base of the fin. I have not seen any signs of any external organisms bothering the fish. I saw no external signs of disease at the location in advance of the incident. The only tankmates are 2 small aptaisia I need to remove, and some bristleworms and tube worms (standard LR hitchhikers). The wound looks clean, except on one side there appears to be a yellow nodule near the wound on the body. It could be the rear of a burrowing parasite, but looks more like some sort of growth. It does not appear to be the right size for a fish eating isopod, and just doesn't look right for that nasty little organism. I could only get a picture of the damage, not the nodule. I did try a freshwater dip last night, and I did a 20% water change, though my chemistry looks OK (no ammonia or nitrate, ~50 ppm nitrate prior to water change). Today, there does not seem to be any improvement, but no deterioration either. There is no obvious odd behavior in the fish, but these guys don't move much, so that's really hard to say. Here is a picture of the damage.
Any ideas on what I'm looking at, and treatment?
Thanks in advance for any help.
LFSJames
Last night I came home to something I'd never seen in my 20 years of fishkeeping. I have a small saltwater tank with 2 leaf Scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus). The smaller, red fish has been acting a bit odd (changing its color from red to yellow and back), and looked like it was about to shed its skin. When it started shedding, I saw that a large portion of the dorsal fin towards the front of the fish had come off, and the affected area included flesh below the fin, and had exposed a spine. It looks like something just suddenly ate a hole in the fish at the base of the fin. I have not seen any signs of any external organisms bothering the fish. I saw no external signs of disease at the location in advance of the incident. The only tankmates are 2 small aptaisia I need to remove, and some bristleworms and tube worms (standard LR hitchhikers). The wound looks clean, except on one side there appears to be a yellow nodule near the wound on the body. It could be the rear of a burrowing parasite, but looks more like some sort of growth. It does not appear to be the right size for a fish eating isopod, and just doesn't look right for that nasty little organism. I could only get a picture of the damage, not the nodule. I did try a freshwater dip last night, and I did a 20% water change, though my chemistry looks OK (no ammonia or nitrate, ~50 ppm nitrate prior to water change). Today, there does not seem to be any improvement, but no deterioration either. There is no obvious odd behavior in the fish, but these guys don't move much, so that's really hard to say. Here is a picture of the damage.
Any ideas on what I'm looking at, and treatment?
Thanks in advance for any help.
LFSJames
