White string on tang head

[PotatoPig]

My Tomini tang has a white “string” on its head at the front of its dorsal fin. See pictures, although admittedly not all that clear.

My Royal Gramma a month or so ago got something similar intermittently, I’d assumed it was some sort of slime or detritus from the cave it chose to live in, but a couple weeks ago it suddenly vanished despite being active and eating well immediately beforehand. So now I’m concerned for my tang.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My Tomini tang has a white “string” on its head at the front of its dorsal fin. See pictures, although admittedly not all that clear.

My Royal Gramma a month or so ago got something similar intermittently, I’d assumed it was some sort of slime or detritus from the cave it chose to live in, but a couple weeks ago it suddenly vanished despite being active and eating well immediately beforehand. So now I’m concerned for my tang.

Looks like floating poop that is sticky and especially so if feeding mysis shrimp which produces mucus. I dont see this as a worm or skin tag. It may be hard to do without fish dashing off, but apply bursts of water from a turkey baster and see if it dislodges.

 

[PotatoPig]

Looks like floating poop that is sticky and especially so if feeding mysis shrimp which produces mucus. I dont see this as a worm or skin tag. It may be hard to do without fish dashing off, but apply bursts of water from a turkey baster and see if it dislodges.

The fish do get a lot of mysis in their diet - hopefully that’s it.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The fish do get a lot of mysis in their diet - hopefully that’s it.

I don’t think it’s a worm - they just don’t live like that on marine fish. I agree it is either some mucus or a skin tag from a scrape.