False-eye Pufferfish has strange growth on abdomen that looks like a piece of gravel protruding - what is it? A parasite?

[DavidDB]

Have had this FalseEye Puffer for a couple of weeks. A few days after I got him I noticed what looked like a piece of gravel on his left abdomen, and it has stayed there for ten days and now looks more like a parasite or some kind of extrusion from his gut. Anybody know what this is and what I should do about it? The fish seems healthy and is eating and swimming well, and does not seem to be injured. This is my semi quarantine tank and the only other fish is a small wrasse that is not aggressive, so I do not think it has be bitten. I do have some sea anemones in the tank, but have never seen them cause an injury like this. Any ideas? I have been waiting to see if it just heals naturally.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Have had this FalseEye Puffer for a couple of weeks. A few days after I got him I noticed what looked like a piece of gravel on his left abdomen, and it has stayed there for ten days and now looks more like a parasite or some kind of extrusion from his gut. Anybody know what this is and what I should do about it? The fish seems healthy and is eating and swimming well, and does not seem to be injured. This is my semi quarantine tank and the only other fish is a small wrasse that is not aggressive, so I do not think it has be bitten. I do have some sea anemones in the tank, but have never seen them cause an injury like this. Any ideas? I have been waiting to see if it just heals naturally.

I don't know what that is.

In older fish, they can develop tumors that look dark like this, but that would be unexpected in a new acquisition.

Puffers do get copepod infestations, but with those, you can either see the body of the copepod, or its egg mass, and this isn't either.

It could be an evulsion of its abdomen, but I can't tell you how/why that would have happened.

Jay