What happened to Dory???

[HKfshkpr1]

My Hippo tang's been in my tank for about 10 months and was always fine. Yesterday morning I was freaked out to see she had 2 "white patches" near her tail. It's really looked like she was "skinned" at those spots! I thought about taking a picture but it was a little too dim and I had to go out, I put it off until I came back in the afternoon.

I knew she had about out grown her hideout: a seam between 2 "rough rocks" and could have scrapped herself. But 2 days ago I introdced a "much smaller" Powder Blue Tang that would not back down from her at all. That got me thinking but they did not look like puncture wounds.

When I came back 10 hours later, her patches had reduced in size, but had the color of fungus( oh no!) see pic. The patches were twice as big initially. Didn't know what to do esp. when she was acting "normal" and out in the open, and was eating well throughout.

Today morning, guess what? she looked almost 100% normal again, great! Just don't know what that was??? Anyone had the same experience?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Its possible that it may have healed itself. The yellow tail does have some fight damage on her. Watch closely as it heals.

Anymore aggressive behavior between the two?

What size tank are they in?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Keep an eye on it, my PB Tang is a rock surfer he loves to dart in and out of rock work. He scraped himself up quite a bit but he’s healthy and they heal. I would recommend feeding him Nori to help his immune system though.

 

[OrthoVet05]

Is that a damsel in your tank? I’ve heard those are the most aggressive reef fish out there... something to think about if it seems like your tangs get along.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Is that a damsel in your tank? I’ve heard those are the most aggressive reef fish out there... something to think about if it seems like your tangs get along.

Isn’t it amazing how such a small fish (Damsel) can be so aggressive to everything?

 

[HKfshkpr1]

I have 2 Azul damsels but they're one of the least aggressive damsels that rarely attack others.

 

[HKfshkpr1]

Keep an eye on it, my PB Tang is a rock surfer he loves to dart in and out of rock work. He scraped himself up quite a bit but he’s healthy and they heal. I would recommend feeding him Nori to help his immune system though.

Now I am pretty sure that she had scraped herself because today I saw her dated "under" a rock that sits on top of the gravel, with her body flat to fit in. I was just surprised how fast her wounds healed( believe me they looked bad). Today she's 100% normal.

I am not a big beliver of nori as most of the food I feed have seaweed or kelp in them, plus I feed Yu Choy( Chinese veggie, much less messy than nori) that has antioxidant. Judging by the color of my fish and the speedy recovery of Dory I am confident that my feeding routine is fine.

I do believe, in this case, that good water quality is more important. First of all it would reduce the chance of infection, etc. It also makes the fish bolder and panic less, less likely to hurt themselves when they dart into rocks, etc. Dory is my water quality indicator as she would dart more often when nitrate gets high.