Possibly Fish Injury?

[blaxsun]

Hey fish injury gurus - hoping you can possibly shed some insight. Our powder brown tang seems to have some sort of injury (or something?) below his left pectoral fin. It's not ich or velvet. All the other fish in the tank are perfectly fine and healthy. Tank parameters are all optimum (salinity, etc.) The tang is swimming perfectly fine, eating everything, not flashing or otherwise showing any discomfort. We're not sure when this happened as we only observed it today when doing some extended tank maintenance (we do visual checks on the fish every 1-2 days so it either happened recently or wasn't noticeable until now). Thanks in advance. #fishmedic

PS. I'm in Canada so we have very (read: almost zero) access to any kind of medications. The only thing I have on-hand Polyp Labs Medic which has worked in combination with the UV I run in the past.

PPS. The "spots" on the back of the fish aren't actually there (just happened to be stuff floating around in the water at the exact moment the picture was taken). Basically to the left, under and a few white dots on the edge of the fin.

It's hard to see in the image (just used my camera phone), but it's actually more white than blue.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That’s a weird looking lesion - like a mix of an injury but also some spots/bumps that continue on down the side of the fish.
I wish we knew for sure if it appeared all at once, or developed gradually over a few days.
Without access to medications, your options may be just “wait and see”.
Jay

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

Almost looks like cysts or abscesses that are trying to erupt. Does it look like there is any discharge? Particularly by the "white lines"

 

[vetteguy53081]

It’s not cysts or abscess but appears like a tail strike from another tang or other injury with fish possibly scratching area from irritatant or skin reaction
As jay stated- weird appearance

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

It's hard to see in the image (just used my camera phone), but it's actually more white than blue.

That pic looks a little more like an injury. Can you tell if the "bumps" is from the disruption of the tissue vs. something forming under the tissue? Hard to tell in a still photo.

 

[blaxsun]

That’s a weird looking lesion - like a mix of an injury but also some spots/bumps that continue on down the side of the fish.
I wish we knew for sure if it appeared all at once, or developed gradually over a few days.
Without access to medications, your options may be just “wait and see”.
Jay

Yeah - it looked like an injury to my wife and eye as well. I tried (and probably failed) to get a few more images.

In this one you can see it's kind of white/puffy (tried to get a head-on shot but that was next to impossible).

 

[blaxsun]

It’s not cysts or abscess but appears like a tail strike from another tang or other injury with fish possibly scratching area from irritatant or skin reaction
As jay stated- weird appearance

That's a definite possibility. This one also likes spelunking, so it's possible it got aggravated.

Almost looks like cysts or abscesses that are trying to erupt. Does it look like there is any discharge? Particularly by the "white lines"

The image doesn't really do it justice (apologies). The best analogy that I can give you when looking at it in-person is similar to if you were to scrape your knuckle on something. The skin in this spot is white like something struck/injured it.

 

[blaxsun]

Short video (not sure if it's viewable or not).

 

[vetteguy53081]

Short video (not sure if it's viewable or not).

Video showed area for about 4 seconds. It still looks like a tail strike with infection developing to me hence the little bumps representing skin rash and I can say to keep an eye on it for improvement but to have ton hand Seachem kanaplex or maracyn 2 on hand if it worsens.

 

[blaxsun]

Apologies for the horrible coloration in this image (long story, fought with Adobe Lightroom - it won). This guy won't sit still for one minute but it's the best I could snag of the area in question.

 

[blaxsun]

Video showed area for about 4 seconds. It still looks like a tail strike with infection developing to me hence the little bumps representing skin rash and I can say to keep an eye on it for improvement but to have ton hand Seachem kanaplex or maracyn 2 on hand if it worsens.

Appreciated, thanks.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

This guy won't sit still for one minute but it's the best I could snag of the area in question.

This is a good thing at least from a health standpoint but not a diagnostic one lol Whatever it is, is still just affecting just the local tissue. It's when they become lethargic or anorexic is when you start thinking the issue has become a systemic problem.