Peter Houde
Active Member
One of my two brooding yellow-tailed damsels has what looks like a knife cut nearly a quarter inch deep clear through his back all the way from the right to left sides. Amazingly, he is still behaving normally and vigorously guarding his eggs. His nest is pretty close to where my ocellaris call and defend home. Of course, they are aggressive (at least towards me) though I've never actually seen them with eggs. But the damsel's nest is also in the vicinity of where my peppermint shrimp prefers to hang out in the daytime. I've definitely seen her fending off bigger fishes passing by with her claws when she's out and about foraging. Has anyone ever had a peppermint shrimp actually inflict a wound on a fish? This just doesn't look like the shape of a fish bite. I don't know if a tang could or even would inflict a gash with its peduncle spine on a little damselfish, or if foxface could inflict this kind of wound with its spines. I also can't rule out the possibility that some crab isn't the culprit. I hardly ever see them but I know they're there usually hiding among the deeper rocks. They usually look more or less like emerald crabs.
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