Lyretail anthias brown splotches

[Miami Reef]

I have 4 lyretail anthias. Had them for several months.

One of them looks like this:

 

[Ben.QLD2]

That just looks like pigment, rather than an injury or illness. May have been as a result of an injury at some point, or just completely innocuous.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like post injury or bacterial
Fortunately not uronema
You can as a safeguard add ruby rally pro to assure no developing infection

 

[TX_REEF]

is it possible that fish is transitioning to male? The males do have a darker pigment. Generally the largest and most dominant female of a group will transition to male.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I've not seen this before in Anthias. I agree that it could be related to color changes male-to-female that got sort of messed up due to captivity. I've seen that in some wrasses.

If the anthias is still eating well, and not breathing fast, I would consider that it is some innocuous color change of unknown cause. Even if it is something else, it does not seem to be any of the common, treatable issues.

Jay