Bartlett Anthia, chunk of skin is gone

Butuz · Oct 1, 2019

Guys, for good 6-7 mos, I had 4 Bartlett anthias. A few months ago, one of 3 females started to turn into a male and some minor fighting started to take place. I found one of the males dead. That was 3 or so months ago. Been ok so far with 1 male, 2 females. They have always been in the open, swimming around, healthy, happy. Well, 3 days ago, I stopped seeing one of females. By now, I assume its dead. The issue now is that my other/last female, looks beaten up. Yesterday, I saw some fin damage and some white fuzzy spots on it, today, a chunk of skin is missing from one of the sides. Pic below. Do you think thats the male anthia’s doing? I have not added any fish to the tank for many months (and they are always QTd for 45 days prior anyway), so I doubt this is some sort of illness, so gravitating towards aggression. I see the male occasionally swim, charge, chase and brush against it, but they have been doing that for a long time. 3-4 mos ago I added a flame hawk, - could he be the one causing this by any chance? What could it be?

Otherwise, all other fish look and act super healthy. Many thanks.

Peace River · Oct 2, 2019

Let's see if we can get some help for your fish...

#reefsquad #anthias

saltyhog · Oct 2, 2019

Impossible to say for certain unless you actually see it happening. A lot of time the aggressive fish doesn't directly cause the trauma but causes the object of his aggression to run in to a rock or something else in the tank and sustain an injury. Flame Hawks are known to sometimes be aggressive but no way to know for sure. Hopefully someone who keeps anthias will chime in soon!

Daniel@R2R · Oct 3, 2019

Ouch! Just keep watching for any further aggression

vetteguy53081 · Oct 3, 2019

Looks like a gash from being startled. One neat thing about saltwater fish is their ability to heal themselves and quickly.
If you want to speed healing and reduce chance of infection, , , You can add Melafix liquid and also Stress coat.