Blenny with fin damage

[GoTakeANap]

Hello everyone. A friend of mine has a blenny with some fin damage. He bought this fish 2 weeks ago. Is this some form of bacteria/fin rot? Fish in his tank are coral beauty, yellow watchmen and 2 designer clowns. 1st photo is a picture of the fish in the fish store. After going back and looking at photos he sent the picture with the slightly white spot on the fin circled. 2nd photo is 2 days ago and 3rd is this morning. Any advice on what steps to take?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone. A friend of mine has a blenny with some fin damage. He bought this fish 2 weeks ago. Is this some form of bacteria/fin rot? Fish in his tank are coral beauty, yellow watchmen and 2 designer clowns. 1st photo is a picture of the fish in the fish store. After going back and looking at photos he sent the picture with the slightly white spot on the fin circled. 2nd photo is 2 days ago and 3rd is this morning. Any advice on what steps to take?

That does look like a minor bacterial infection, starting with some injury (possibly from before your friend even bought the fish). It then progressed to the hole in the fin as the bacteria eats away at the damaged fin tissue. the question of course is - will the bacteria stop with just the damaged tissue, or will it continue eating away into healthy fin tissue? There is no way to answer that. So - the options are to just let it run its course, or to move the fish to a treatment tank and dose with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like Neoplex. There is not any "in tank" treatment they can safely use in their main display tank.

Jay