Would love some help diagnosing my precious possum wrasse. Pale patches have started showing up on her body, mostly near the head. So far it doesn't seem like there's any film, growth, or deterioration in the areas, just discoloration.
This spot above her eye probably seems the worst, and could possibly be slightly indented, but it's really hard to tell, even in person.
The underside of her head area seems to be especially pale:
Does this look like it could be some kind of sting or irritation? I do have several pests right now. The rock in her main hideout area is covered with hydroids (the tiny, white, stringy, branching kind) but most of what I've read says that they don't sting fish. Maybe they sting enough to irritate though? I also recently spotted some baby aiptasia in one area of a rock, but why would the wrasse be messing with them enough to keep getting stung? I don't think there's more aiptasia in her hideout (I took the rock out to inspect a couple days ago), but I'll have to check again. There's also lots of vermitid snails throughout the tank that I'm trying to destroy, but again I know they irritate coral but didn't think they would bother fish.
Is it possible it's an injury from me moving rocks or something? I'm really careful when I've been doing this (trying to crush vermitid snails and such) but I figure maybe something could have happened without me knowing? I'm not positive but I feel like the patches didn't all show up at once, so I feel like that makes this theory less likely.
I am concerned about bacterial infection for two possible reasons. I (stupidly, I know) just add a yasha goby two weeks ago without quarantining . I assume the yasha is still alive but it hasn't left it's hiding spot under the rock. I can check again but felt really guilty for disturbing it the first time and am nervous about accidentally crushing it or the pistol shrimp. I also had a watchman goby die two months ago from what seemed to definitely be some kind of bacterial infection or tumor in its gut. I had a bad dinoflagellate outbreak at the time and a couple snails died, so I assumed that greatly affected the goby's sickness. Dinos have been taken care of for a while now though.
Other larger inhabitants are a yasha goby, pistol shrimp, emerald crab, pom pom crab, and hermit crab. I don't have any euphyllia or other corals with a bad sting (I don't think?).
Parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate .2
Phosphate 0
Calcium 470
Alkalinity 8.2
Magnesium 1470
pH 8.2
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
She's acting normally and seems to still be eating. I've never actually seen her eat any of the prepared foods I feed the tank, but is constantly picking at rocks. She's been in the tank for about 5 months.
Anyway, if these spots look familiar to anyone, I'd love to know about it!
This spot above her eye probably seems the worst, and could possibly be slightly indented, but it's really hard to tell, even in person.
The underside of her head area seems to be especially pale:
Does this look like it could be some kind of sting or irritation? I do have several pests right now. The rock in her main hideout area is covered with hydroids (the tiny, white, stringy, branching kind) but most of what I've read says that they don't sting fish. Maybe they sting enough to irritate though? I also recently spotted some baby aiptasia in one area of a rock, but why would the wrasse be messing with them enough to keep getting stung? I don't think there's more aiptasia in her hideout (I took the rock out to inspect a couple days ago), but I'll have to check again. There's also lots of vermitid snails throughout the tank that I'm trying to destroy, but again I know they irritate coral but didn't think they would bother fish.
Is it possible it's an injury from me moving rocks or something? I'm really careful when I've been doing this (trying to crush vermitid snails and such) but I figure maybe something could have happened without me knowing? I'm not positive but I feel like the patches didn't all show up at once, so I feel like that makes this theory less likely.
I am concerned about bacterial infection for two possible reasons. I (stupidly, I know) just add a yasha goby two weeks ago without quarantining . I assume the yasha is still alive but it hasn't left it's hiding spot under the rock. I can check again but felt really guilty for disturbing it the first time and am nervous about accidentally crushing it or the pistol shrimp. I also had a watchman goby die two months ago from what seemed to definitely be some kind of bacterial infection or tumor in its gut. I had a bad dinoflagellate outbreak at the time and a couple snails died, so I assumed that greatly affected the goby's sickness. Dinos have been taken care of for a while now though.
Other larger inhabitants are a yasha goby, pistol shrimp, emerald crab, pom pom crab, and hermit crab. I don't have any euphyllia or other corals with a bad sting (I don't think?).
Parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate .2
Phosphate 0
Calcium 470
Alkalinity 8.2
Magnesium 1470
pH 8.2
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
She's acting normally and seems to still be eating. I've never actually seen her eat any of the prepared foods I feed the tank, but is constantly picking at rocks. She's been in the tank for about 5 months.
Anyway, if these spots look familiar to anyone, I'd love to know about it!
