What's on my tomato clown?

baloutang

New member
My clown fish is doing well in my tank (+4 years), but today, I just noticed this lesion/scratch on his side. I don't know if it's from swimming or a bacterial infection.
My salinity did get a little high in the tank ~1.030, but I don't know if this caused it. My other fishes are all fine, the clown is eating normally as well. Salinity is down, should I be treating this or just wait it out?

clown.jpg
 
That's a very clear picture - you can almost count that there are about four scales missing! It doesn't look inflamed, so I wouldn't be worried about furunculosis or some serious secondary infection (yet). Is something going on with its caudal fin, or is that a shadow? It looks like the trailing edge is dark, and a section of the upper part is missing.
I doubt that the specific gravity rise had anything to do with it directly - but I'm assuming the S.G. change came about due to some tank maintenance? As you know, sometimes fish freak when you're working on the tank. Still, that is an odd spot for an injury caused by hitting rocks or coral.
What other fish are in the tank, any chance that the status quo is changing and somebody is beginning to pick on this fish?

JHemdal
 
LOL, thanks...No, the pic is actually pretty dark so his fins all look good and well rounded, the picture isn't showing everything accurately. I wasn't only trying to capture the one spot.
So, I just recently added a few anthias and a leopard wrasse, all much smaller than this guy.
Other tank inhabitants, Blue tang which now seems to dominate that tank since I took out the real bully a damsel. But the Tang is the same size if not smaller than the clown and those two rarely tread on each other's territory.
What I've noticed is when I feed there's a definite feeding frenzy that never happened before the new fish were added..
 
baloutang,
Well, the recent fish additions then beg the question, were they quarantined beforehand? Usually, but not always, if a new fish bring a disease into your tank, they will be the first affected - but not always! It bears close observation if the new fish were not quarantined.
Its possible that your blue tang took a swipe at the clown and nicked it with its tail spine.

Oh, BTW - your thread said tomato clown and this is a big maroon clown.

Jay
 

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