Help identifying injury/disease

[fishywishy]

Hi

I bought my copperband butterfly just last week, at which time i'm sure he was healthy. He now appears to have this nasty abrasion just above his fin and i wondered if anyone could tell me if it's a disease that's going to get worse? Until today, i thought it was just the way the butterfly fish swam. Darting from rock to rock, but i think now that he's maybe trying to scratch this wound.

Thanks a bunch.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q1/copper1.jpg

[bearindrag]

has any other fish taken a nip at him or tried to squeeze through a gap that to small ,hows he eating and swimming chris

[fishywishy]

Hi
I was just about to edit (after further reading elsewhere) and ask could this be down to not feeding well!? He takes only the very ocassional brine shrimp i feed the other inhabitants (2 clowns, 3 green chromis). He seemed very confident on his second day though to let my boxing shrimp, who normally nips anything that moves!, clean him. I was fascinated by this sight, but it did look like he got a wee nip in there at the end - but it didn't stop him coming back for another clean and another nip. Couldn't have imagined it would have done this though. I'm positive the other fish certainly wouldn't have had a go at him.

Incidentally, there are lots of small swim throughs too. At least i'm probably looking at one of those two things then. Should i just ignore the wound for the time being or should i be adding 'cycle' and things.

I'll maybe start feeding live food as well just to get him eating properly.

Anything else? Thanks v much.

[bearindrag]

i won't ignore it , i would keep a very close eye on him try a mixture of live and flake ,also was he feeding in the lfs , the only thing is my boxing shrimp never cleaned any of my fish ,it just nipped them hope this helps chris

[fishywishy]

I thought the same of my boxing shrimp, but this is the first decent sized fish i got, and i've read that this is what they do in the wild.

He doesn't seem to want the flake food much either, but i'll make a point of buying some live stuff tomorrow, becuase i've read that so long as he eats this it should be easier to coax him onto dried or frozen food.

I bought him from UDA who i trust a lot, and i made a point of choosing the most active one they had. He looked very well, and i know they quarantine their fish for a couple of weeks so i generally think that the fish they sell must be accepting food. Perhaps i should just ask to see them feeding for my own piece of mind.

Thanks very much for the advice.

[Wombat]

Looks like physical damage, hard to say for sure,

re feeding it does look a bit pinched under the operculum a big fish like that should take more than the odd morsel

IMHO they rarely eat dry food (or frozen for that matter) and they do have a tendency to starve in aquariums.

[instantsquid]

Did you see the fish feeding in the shop? They are finicky eaters and rarely take prepared foods - frozen msysis, cockle, mussel, etc. are all good.

- Ian

[fishywishy]

I admitted to not having seen it feed in the lfs (against my better judgement), but it is a very reputable dealer and i know they quarantine their fish for 2 weeks so i thought it must have obviously fed during that period - hence not asking them.

I watched him feed satisfactorily last night on brine shrimp and he continues to be periodically cleaned by the boxer. I was very pleased to see him take big gulps of the brine shrimp! Nevertheless i will be buying live food (would have bought it before now if he still wasn't feeding).

Thanks all.

[instantsquid]

I would try to get him onto something other than brineshrimp as soon as possible. Although tasty (apparently!) they offer very little in the way of nutritional value.

- Ian

[Wombat]

you could always enrich the artemia to help