Tube on Longhorn Cowfish?

[JordanM]

I noticed this tube looking structure on my longhorn cowfish yesterday. Any ideas as to what it could be? Other fish in the tank are a foxface, blue tang, sailfin tang, yellow tang and a pair of clowns. This fish went through 3 days of Reef Rally, Two dozes of Prazi Pro 7 days apart and the 12 days of Tank transfer method. It has been 7 days since it has been introduced into this tank. It almost looks like a feather duster tube. I know its hard to see in the pictures.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Is there occasionally a long stringy bit coming out of the tube and is there a curly bit at the base? If so it is is a relatively harmless type of snail

 

[JordanM]

Yes, there does seem like some stringy material at the tip of it. It appears a brown color at the base. Hard to tell if its under the scale or just on top.

 

[Cthulukelele]

It is probably a vermentid snail. They are relatively harmless, though they don't usually attach to healthy fish from what I've read.

 

[JordanM]

Im debating catching him and seeing if i can scratch it off.

 

[ReefdUp]

Um... are you sure it isn't a reproductive structure...? If you feed the tank, does it come out more? Fish get excited during feeding, so sometimes reproductive structures become more obvious.

 

[JordanM]

Um... are you sure it isn't a reproductive structure...? If you feed the tank, does it come out more? Fish get excited during feeding, so sometimes reproductive structures become more obvious.

Thought of this but it is off to one side about 1/3 of the way if hes looking straight and I would think reproductive or excretory systems would be mid line.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

A Vermitid can't attach to a fish regardless of health. Looks like physical trauma to me but I refer to @Humblefish

 

[Cthulukelele]

Sorry for the bad info!

 

[Humblefish]

Could be an anchor worm, although a viral or bacterial lesion is probably more likely.

Is what you see sticking out of the fish straight or like what you see below?

 

[JordanM]

Could be an anchor worm, although a viral or bacterial lesion is probably more likely.

Is what you see sticking out of the fish straight or like what you see below?

It looks fairly straight, however it is kind of flimsy on the end. Length is only about 1mm sticking out the bottom of the fish.

 

[JordanM]

I was able to grab ahold of the 1mm portion and pull it off. Not sure if i got all of it but now the area where it was sticking out appears a little bloody. You can see the darker area to the left of the black spot on the underside of the fish that i circled.

 

[JordanM]

A little bit better picture.

 

[JordanM]

Could be an anchor worm, although a viral or bacterial lesion is probably more likely.

Is what you see sticking out of the fish straight or like what you see below?

@Humblefish Shouldn't the PraziPro have killed any parasitic worms or is this worm internally so the Prazi Pro does not affect it? Today the area does look better after ripping off whatever it was. I can clearly see a hole in the scale where whatever it was but it looks like it is healing. Should i remove the fish and treat it with anything else in a separate tank or just leave him and see if it comes back or heals shut?

 

[JordanM]

For anyone else that may have this happen:
When I pulled the tube off it came back within a day or two. I then pulled the cowfish out again and removed the tube with tweezers and dabbed a drop of hydrogen peroxide on the infected area and let it sit for about a minute before putting the cowfish back into the tank. The area appears to be healing well now except for that area being a little whiter then the rest of the fish. Im not sure if this is a good thing to do or not but it appears to have worked.