Typical appearance of surgeonfish inflicted wounds question...

[El Langostino]

I noticed one of my fish had a small white line on its side that was surrounded by a dark cloudly like globular area. I've haven't had any aggression problems with my tangs as of yet, but was just wondering if this is typically how the slash marks appear. I'm sure the answer is probably yes, I just want to make sure it's not some obscure disease. I guess I was just surprised at how the line that I presume to be the slash mark is so vividly white whereas the area around is so dark.

I'm guessing it was a 2 inch yellow tang attacking a 4.5 inch Naso. I know I'm probably going to get some grief about keeping a Naso genus tang in a 90 gallon and perhaps some of it well deserved but I'm definitely upgrading to a huge system in a few years. In any event, jeez, that sure is incredibly frustrating to me because the naso is so friendly and actually more like a pet. Mundane little yellow trouble maker is hardly one of my favorite fish, argh...

Should this small wound heal up quickly and not leave a scar?

thanks a lot

 

[Casie]

I've owned the same few fish for many years and they have always gotten along fine, so you can imagine how suprised I was one morning to find a deep white cut on my male clownfish!

My clowns had a nice batch of eggs at the time and I'm guessing my purple tang got interested in them.

I put my injured clown in the refugium for 2 weeks. He appreciated the low flow and the special feedings, and healed up quick.

His cut never looked dark. It was a thin white cut and I could see pink flesh where it was deepest. I remember thinking how appropriate the nickname surgeon fish really is... the cut looked like it really was made with a scalpel!

Anyway, he returned to the main tank fiesty and well rested. The first thing he did is went right to his anemone and kicked the female out, but she looked happy to see him and let him have his way.

That was around... 3 years ago. Whatever thier beef was I guess they made up. No new fish drama to report since! (Unless you count the long nose hawkfish that went carpet diving last year....)

 

[El Langostino]

I'm definitely still very new to this hobby but one thing I'm sort of proud of is that I've had absolutely no issues with water chemistry as I've been able to keep perfect water quality as my nitrates are undetectable and cyano is not an issue. I've never lost a single organism to water quality issues...

...The main problems I seem to be having are with the actual fish coexisting in an amicable, peaceful setting. I love Clowns and Surgeons and well, unfortunately they are two of the most territorial and aggressive fish.

It's not as though I haven't read because I have done extensive research and have a great understanding of what it takes to sustain many different types of fish and am well aware of which species typically maintain decent repoire with each other...unfortunately I'm just a really arrogant and often times stubborn individual so I must admit to scoffing at a few of the tried and true rules in terms of mixing conspecifics =)

But some of us must learn the hard way. I plan to return my surgeonfish to the LFS and just keep one(or two small ones at the MOST)as honestly I have now seen what can happen with 3 tangs in a 90 gallon tank.

As for my clowns, my Maroon and Ocellaris were getting along fine really, but as the Maroon continues to grow I feared the inevitable slaughter of Nemo so I returned the ocellaris to the LFS and in fact he has already found a new home with someone else.

I think I'm just going keep one sugeonfish, a maroon pair, my 3 chromis and call it a day

ciao

 

[El Langostino]

Oh and of course also now focus on creating a softie/LPS reef.

 

[marrone]

Depending on how deep the slash is it could look like a white line or if it's deep a dark line. The mark usually looks puffy around the cut or line. It should heal over a # of days and mostly wouldn't leave a mark. This is pretty common when you mix tangs together as slash happen over food and space even with tangs that are usually peaciful together even though Yellow tangs are some what aggressive and can be a problem.

 

[El Langostino]

Yes Indeed. My Yellow tang I would say is moderately aggressive, no surprises there.

The real baffling thing seems to be the Kole. It's just plain evil. It will even viciously attack my sally light foot and emerald crabs. Just goes to show you each fish truly is an individual.

Removing it will be a near impossible task. This is such a nervous fish, always looking out for where I am so it can hide. The fish truly despises me and everything in the tank.