Someone beat up my Tomini

[degibson84]

The only other fish in the tank that isn't pictured is a small brackish Green Spot Puffer who has never showed any aggression at all. The larger of the 2 clowns usually shows some aggression but only towards the smaller clown. IF you look closely at the back of the dorsal fin you can see a chunk missing. Will this eventually heal or is he going to look bad for the rest of his life?

 

[degibson84]

this was him a few days ago perfect enough to be a damn show fish

 

[RayL]

It should heal over time.
Even though you don't think it was the puffer, that is were I would put my money. They are very aggressive

 

[degibson84]

It should heal over time.
Even though you don't think it was the puffer, that is were I would put my money. They are very aggressive

I have had him for about a year now and have never seen any aggression form him at all. I too was thinking it was him but my wife said her fish would never do that

 

[RayL]

Haha that's what the wife always says. I have a yellow eye kole tang that is my wife's only fish, and if you ask her, this fish has never shown any aggression towards any of my fish. Even though I showed her a video of the kole chasing my Goldflake angel before, she claims he was just defending himself.

 

[ilikefish34]

+1 for the Puffer

As cute as they may appear, their appetite supersedes their desire to play nice. When I was a teenager, I worked at a lfs where we kept a tank of them in a brackish water. Against advice, customers wouldn't believe that they had a mean bone in their body and would insist on buying them to put in with mollies and platys. To convince them, and I'm not proud of this, we would put a feeder goldfish in the tank that was even larger than any puffer. They would attack it like a pack of wolves and devour it within moments. There are undesirable factors here such as too many puffers in one tank and most likely a bit underfed which is common place in a small mom and pop pet store. The point was clearly made to the customers which did save countless livebearers. In a saltwater tank, there are many practical applications where the puffer would be just fine. Your tank, in fact, may work out in the long run but keep the puffer in mind when fins look go missing after lights out.

Good Luck
Mike

 

[degibson84]

last night I went down and the dorsal fin was fine. could it have healed up that quick??

 

[chipchip]

The tomini will become very aggressive when he is adult. Mine became very aggressive since my yellow tang disappeared. He was very shy for years and now he is a mess. If I just could get him out..

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Yes, they can heal fins in a week or two.

 

[ca1ore]

Healthy fish will stitch up a rip or a chunk missing pretty quickly - I have certainly seen it heal in less than as week. FWIW, I had a sailfin show up with ripped fins a few weeks ago, and the only tankmate was a large sally lightfoot, so don't dismiss inverts as the aggressor.

 

[degibson84]

The only inverts I have are 2 pep shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, tuxedo urchin, sand star a few hermits and a few snails.

 

[snorvich]

The only inverts I have are 2 pep shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp, tuxedo urchin, sand star a few hermits and a few snails.

I vote for the puffer. And the shrimp above are likely to be dinner at some point.

 

[degibson84]

I vote for the puffer. And the shrimp above are likely to be dinner at some point.

this puffer has no interest in any inverts in the tank. I can barely get him to eat frozen. he only eats flakes

 

[Megatrev62]

Weirdest thing happened to my yellow tang about 3 weeks ago. I noticed that his dorsal was split right down the middle. Didn't bother me too much just figured it was the 4 inch lamarcks I recently purchased. They posture at eachother mostly.
Anyway, what really blew me away was the split was completely absent just 2 days later. Yes, 2 days later. Found that really weird.