Growths on Coral Beauty

[returnofsid]

Hi Lee,
This morning, I noticed a couple "growths" on the right hand flank of our Coral Beauty Angelfish. My first thought was parasitic isopods, but after a closer look, I don't think so. They appear to be loosely attached, almost like scales that are flaking off. Unfortunately, this guy doesn't lend itself to photography very well. So I wasn't able to get the best of pictures. We've had the fish for several years, and it's always been active and appeared healthy. The fish is swimming normally, eating and breathing normally. I've watched it, closely, and I see no signs of agitation, rubbing or scraping. Any ideas?

 

[leebca]

They appear to me to be patches. That is, they don't seems to be raised up off the skin level of the fish. Is this correct?

Any chance the fish has been injured or gotten stung from any immobile invertebrate? This would be a 'sudden appearance.' Is there any chance these have been developing over time and gone unnoticed until now?

If its nutrition was deficient, I'd suspect an opportunistic organism as a second thought.

 

[ac7av]

Looks like the scale is falling off? I see this once in a while on my beauty so Im tagging along.

 

[returnofsid]

They appear to me to be patches. That is, they don't seems to be raised up off the skin level of the fish. Is this correct?

Any chance the fish has been injured or gotten stung from any immobile invertebrate? This would be a 'sudden appearance.' Is there any chance these have been developing over time and gone unnoticed until now?

If its nutrition was deficient, I'd suspect an opportunistic organism as a second thought.

Lee, there does seem to be a raising up of the scales. I haven't captured the fish, to feel it, but it does appear to be raised above the rest of the scales. As for a time frame, yes this is a sudden appearance. If it went unnoticed, developing over time, there were no visual signs, prior to the day I started this post. I actually was paying particular attention to the tank, the day prior and there were no signs of problems at all, with this fish.

An update, whatever is wrong, is still not effecting the fish, in any visual fashion. No flashing, fish is still eating, breathing and swimming, normally. Also, the 2 spots seem less obvious now, but are still visible.

As Ac7av mentions, it does have the appearance of 2 scales, falling off. It actually reminds me of when reptiles shed their skin, but only a couple of scales. Kind of a strange comparison, but I used to raise several different reptiles...lol. It "looks" like the fish is shedding a couple of scales.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

It might just be a couple wounds from perhaps scraping on rocks on accident and slimecoat thickened there. The problems i was having with my clowns ended up being wounds from getting scales bitten off and they looked almost the same as the pics you posted. Mine finally healed up and show no signs of it ever being there.

 

[returnofsid]

Shawn, what was biting the scales off of your clown fish?

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Originally i thought it was my sixline but i noticed my other black clown that was introduced was biting it in the location that the patchers were. I believe they were just fighting over dominance and have now settled their differences since i haven't seen anything but the male clown shimmy shake.

 

[leebca]

Then I would agree with injury/damage. If they get worse, let us know.

 

[ajnweb]

Could it be bite marks from a blenny? I had a starry blenny, I believe, that would actually attack rabbit fish. It would strike incredibly fast and leave similar "kiss" marks on the fishes side. They do kind of look like the same marks a blenny leaves when it eats algae off of the glass. Do you even have any blennies in the tank?

 

[returnofsid]

This morning, Coral Beauty looks just fine, with no signs of injury. Thanks all!!

Tony, yes, I have a Starry Blenny in the tank. In the past, I have seen Starry Blenny bite marks, that appear to look like a "half moon." This looked differently, but could very well have been.