Harptail Blenny with a swollen mouth

[donnievaz]

Anyone know what this is? I'm wondering if he smashed his mouth running away from the tank bully Coral Beauty.

 

[helen ann]

Awwwww poor lil' guy!

@melypr1985 & @Humblefish

 

[melypr1985]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it appears to be a slight injury. You can add vitamins to their food to help boost the immune system and wait to see if it heals on it's own.

 

[donnievaz]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it appears to be a slight injury. You can add vitamins to their food to help boost the immune system and wait to see if it heals on it's own.

That's what I was thinking. I just wanted to make sure.

 

[donnievaz]

Poor guy didn't make it...

 

[melypr1985]

dang. Sorry for the loss. Must have been infected and just wasn't easy to see in the picture. I'm sorry I didn't catch that for you!

 

[donnievaz]

dang. Sorry for the loss. Must have been infected and just wasn't easy to see in the picture. I'm sorry I didn't catch that for you!

Not your fault I couldn't get a good pic I did take a post mortem pic. His mouth was a mess.

 

[melypr1985]

wow. that is a mess. I'll tag @Humblefish maybe he can tell us what happened there.

 

[anthonywesty]

When I was a kid I remember when my father took me for fishing. I always was doing inspections the fishes and in the 50% of the fishes I saw a small parasite In the mouth. I cant see clearly but could be a parasite.

 

[anthonywesty]

 

[Humblefish]

^^It does look a little like that (tongue eating isopod); below shows the underside of one. But it was probably a gram negative bacterial infection instead, which ate away and mangled up his mouth.