Flukes or Injury?

[swiss1939]

Just noticed this spot on the side of my clown yesterday. Clown does not seem to have any irritation/scratching or symptoms like heavy breathing. Fish seems to be happy and healthy otherwise. Could be scratch? Hoping not flukes. I have never seen anything like this on any of my fish up to this point.

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

Looks like flukes to me, here is a good forum on dealing with them.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/flukes-–-general-guidelines.224423/

 

[Baldyreef]

my little black storm had the same thing a month ago and he didnt show symptoms for a week but it was flukes after all, prazipro worked pretty good for me

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just noticed this spot on the side of my clown yesterday. Clown does not seem to have any irritation/scratching or symptoms like heavy breathing. Fish seems to be happy and healthy otherwise. Could be scratch? Hoping not flukes. I have never seen anything like this on any of my fish up to this point.

tHIS MAY BE ICH. hOW DO OTHER FISH LOOK?
Can you post a video using white, no blue lights?

 

[Fish Fan]

Just noticed this spot on the side of my clown yesterday. Clown does not seem to have any irritation/scratching or symptoms like heavy breathing. Fish seems to be happy and healthy otherwise. Could be scratch? Hoping not flukes. I have never seen anything like this on any of my fish up to this point.

Just to clarify, I don't believe you're concerned with the many small spots in the picture, which I believe may just be spots on the glass. Your concern is that one pinkish spot in the middle white band of this fish?

 

[swiss1939]

Just to clarify, I don't believe you're concerned with the many small spots in the picture, which I believe may just be spots on the glass. Your concern is that one pinkish spot in the middle white band of this fish?

Correct. I am not concerned with any of the little white spots. that is just stuff on the glass or things in the water, not on the clown. What I am concerned with is the pinkish oval on the white middle band of the clown. That is the only thing actually on the clown, the rest is just visual noise to ignore.

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

Have you seen any other pink spots like this one, or is it just the one on the side? If you notice multiple there's a good chance it's flukes. You can also do a quick freshwater dip and see if it falls off.

 

[swiss1939]

Have you seen any other pink spots like this one, or is it just the one on the side? If you notice multiple there's a good chance it's flukes. You can also do a quick freshwater dip and see if it falls off.

I have not seen anything else but this. I will say that I have a yellowtail damsel that tests this guy's turf multiple times a day. So it could be a scratch or something. The damsel doesn't violently attack to the point of injury, but it does get rough for a brief moment at least once a day.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just noticed this spot on the side of my clown yesterday. Clown does not seem to have any irritation/scratching or symptoms like heavy breathing. Fish seems to be happy and healthy otherwise. Could be scratch? Hoping not flukes. I have never seen anything like this on any of my fish up to this point.

Can you see - is the skin disrupted, or does this look like a bruise under intact skin? I can’t tell from the pic. If the former, it’s likely just an injury. If the latter, run a search here on “clownfish bruising”.

That is not flukes. You cannot see flukes directly on fish, just the damage that they do. That damage is generalized, (from many tiny flukes) not localized in a single spot like this.

I don’t see any immediate treatment needed here - watch for the lesion growing in size or new lesions forming.

 

[swiss1939]

Can you see - is the skin disrupted, or does this look like a bruise under intact skin? I can’t tell from the pic. If the former, it’s likely just an injury. If the latter, run a search here on “clownfish bruising”.

That is not flukes. You cannot see flukes directly on fish, just the damage that they do. That damage is generalized, (from many tiny flukes) not localized in a single spot like this.

I don’t see any immediate treatment needed here - watch for the lesion growing in size or new lesions forming.

I would tend to agree. I have not added anything other than a few peppermint shrimp in months. I do not add LFS water when adding livestock. The fish looks happy and showing no signs of irritation. But I will keep an eye on it for a week or so to see what changes if any occur.