Reef Discussion

[MichelleShocked]

Got up this morning and discovered one of the Bangaii has an injured fin. It's eating fine and swimming fine but I'm wanting to avoid infection - should i drop some melafix or pimafix in there? Something else? Or wait and see?

 

[Agent M]

Best thing I find is a decent sized water change. You can also reduce the salinity down to 1.017-1.020 as injuries often cause dehydration in animals which then has a cascade effect on other bodily functions.

You should see that fin show major improvement within 2-3 days, if you see any white fuzz or redness around the injury then you'll know a secondary fungal or bacterial infection is setting in and you can take action from there.

 

[MichelleShocked]

Thanks, @Agent M :)
Am now preparing a dip for my flatworm issue too :)

 

[MagicJ]

Which fin are we talking about?

Any idea what caused the damage?

 

[MichelleShocked]

Which fin are we talking about?

Any idea what caused the damage?

It's the clear side fin in the photo with the white-ish blob mark on it.
When i first spotted it, the fish was doing a really weird wriggle, bending fully one side to the other very quickly - like it had been hooked and was fighting, almost. It was so odd, i stopped to watch, thinking it may be a display behavior. Only did it the few times i saw then behaved normally. Then i noticed a streamer of fine white goo/thread trailing from the side fin. It was tattered as well. It apparently got rid of the thread bit but the white mark remained, which is when i took the photo. I don't know what could have done it for sure but i have two suspicions:
1) it brushed against one of the many aiptasia in my tank and it got stung. I have no idea what the affect is on fish but it would explain the damage and goo stuff.
2) a suspicion that has been growing for a few days -
Newly cleaned out nerite snail shells + frags knocked over + corals removed from their tiles + loud clicks =
Mantis.
I'm wondering if suspected guest had a crack at the Bangaii.
On the plus side, after adding melafix and giving my flatworm infested frags a melafix bath, the fin is completely healed today. Fish is eating greedily and swimming fine still.
So.
Something to keep an eye on.