Flukes on Exquisite Wrasse?

[Brit’s Fish]

I have had my Exquisite Fairy Wrasse for a couple weeks and I’ve noticed that he has a weird sore/mark on his right side just below the dorsal fin. I already posted about this in another thread & I thought maybe it was just a scrape from the rocks or something. Today, I noticed that it looks a little more noticeable. I also noticed that he has one, maybe two roundish clear-ish spots on his left side just below his dorsal fin. He’s eating normally, acting normally & breathing normally - not sitting at the surface for air or swimming into the power head or returns. He’s also not flashing at all, so it doesn’t seem like he’s itchy. Am I overthinking this or could this be flukes? Should I just do a FW dip to be safe?

I have a Yellow Coris Wrasse in another system who is at least 6 months old and sometimes I see a little something like this on his sides too, but it looks more like iridescence (can’t think of any other word to describe it) from his slime coat. These two have never even so much as seen each other though, so I’m not saying the YCW gave the EFW anything.

Sorry the pictures are not great - he’s a fast little guy who never sits still!

 

[Cole.mormon]

Flukes
Start treatment

 

[VJM 21]

This looks like scale damage to me. I’ve never seen visible flukes on the side of a fairy wrasse, and I’ve had fairy wrasses with flukes. The lack of any behavioral changes is also relevant. In my experience, fairy wrasses with flukes stop eating and scratch frequently.

Was this fish treated with prazi prior to being added to the tank? I’d try a freshwater dip if you can catch him before dumping prazi into your reef tank. Just make sure to follow the directions posted by Humblefish...wrasses aren't crazy about freshwater dips.

 

[Brit’s Fish]

This looks like scale damage to me. I’ve never seen visible flukes on the side of a fairy wrasse, and I’ve had fairy wrasses with flukes. The lack of any behavioral changes is also relevant. In my experience, fairy wrasses with flukes stop eating and scratch frequently.

Was this fish treated with prazi prior to being added to the tank? I’d try a freshwater dip if you can catch him before dumping prazi into your reef tank. Just make sure to follow the directions posted by Humblefish...wrasses aren't crazy about freshwater dips.

Thank you! I’m going to do a FW dip today for sure then. If there are no flukes, we’ll see how everything plays out for the little guy and I won’t do anything else that might stress him.
I have a tendency to overthink everything going on with my fish, so I’m hoping this is the case here. Will update after the dip!

 

[Brit’s Fish]

So it’s for sure bites from another fish in my system. My wrasse has mew scale damage today and I saw my Pixy Hawkfish chasing him this morning. Called the LFS where I got the Pixy and they said they’d take him back for store credit. Sad because I really liked the Pixy but I like the wrasses more.

 

[VJM 21]

So it’s for sure bites from another fish in my system. My wrasse has mew scale damage today and I saw my Pixy Hawkfish chasing him this morning. Called the LFS where I got the Pixy and they said they’d take him back for store credit. Sad because I really liked the Pixy but I like the wrasses more.

Sorry to hear that, but I’d do the same. I have a flame hawk that hasn’t bothered anything, but it was added well after the wrasses.