Seeking diagnosis

GJW · 2026-08-01T10:11:02-0400

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I noticed this thin white tissue near my 3.5 year old clown this morning. He seems to be acting normally and my other clown is just fine. Any thoughts on what this could be? I recently added some coral frags so hopefully I didn’t introduce anything.

allof fish · 2026-08-01T10:22:40-0400

Hard to see what we’re looking at. Post white light plz

GJW · 2026-08-01T10:32:06-0400

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It’s like a thin translucent film coming from the gill.

StartingATank · 2026-08-01T10:40:05-0400

To me that looks like a fluke but I am not a fish expert. @Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

allof fish · 2026-08-01T10:43:08-0400

GJW said:
It’s like a thin translucent film coming from the gill.

Appears to be a fluke potentially. I’m by no means an expert but that’s what it looks like.

Jay Hemdal · 2026-08-01T10:43:17-0400

GJW said:
It’s like a thin translucent film coming from the gill.

This isn’t a symptom of any major disease. You cannot see flukes on a fish, only the damage that they cause.

Did this show up suddenly, or could it have grown gradually over time? If sudden, it might have had a scrap with the other clown. If gradual, it may be skin growth from under the operculum. I’ve seen that develop in fish, it isn’t a thing to worry about, but I don’t know why it grows like that (it usually affects both gills on any given fish though).

W31Olds · 2026-08-01T10:45:24-0400

Not a Fluke, more likely an injury. I would just Monitor for now.

GJW · 2026-08-01T10:47:43-0400

Jay Hemdal said:
GJW said:

It’s like a thin translucent film coming from the gill.

Click to expand...

This isn’t a symptom of any major disease. You cannot see flukes on a fish, only the damage that they cause.

Did this show up suddenly, or could it have grown gradually over time? If sudden, it might have had a scrap with the other clown. If gradual, it may be skin growth from under the operculum. I’ve seen that develop in fish, it isn’t a thing to worry about, but I don’t know why it grows like that (it usually affects both gills on any given fish though).

It very well could have been a gradual development. His female pair is fairly aggressive.