Mouth damage Red Velvet Wrasse

[MJV15]

I was out of town for a few weeks and came home to to my wrasse looking like this.

His.. or her mouth looks pretty beat up. There was initially some aggressive dominance issues with my six line wrasse. But it only lasted a few days. The velvet wrasse is the dominant one and they have peacefully cohabitated for about 6 months now. I haven’t witnessed any aggression in the tank with other fish for the last few days. And he readily eats whenever I add frozen food to the tank. Which is at least once a day. I have an auto feeder dropping a pellet mix 4 times a day. I usually see him go over to the feeding ring but couldn’t tell how much if anything he eats.

I noticed these near his mouth and wondered if it’s possible that a bristle worm maybe is responsible. Seems unlikely but what do I know

Thanks for any thoughts.

Other tank information
tank is over a year old
180g display
220g total
Nitrate 1-2
Phosphate .02-.05
Ph8.0-8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

pellets mix of
seaweed extreme and TDO croma boost various sizes

on doser
micro bacter 7
BW Coral amino
TM all-for-reef

other fish
Tangs x4
Sixline wrasse x1
Chromis x4
Clowns x2
Yellow tail damsel x2
Pajama Cardinals x3
Mandarin x2

I can’t think of any think of anything else
Thanks again for any thoughts

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It wasn’t clear to me is the wrasse currently eating?
It does seem odd to see the mouth damage at the same time as bristle worm spines, but I’ve never seen spines do this kind of damage.
I think supportive care is all you can really do for it at this point.
Jay

 

[Pkunk35]

So my gramma has a face looks just like that and I’ve always thought it was from diving into the rock work somehow when i first got it.

 

[MJV15]

It wasn’t clear to me is the wrasse currently eating?
It does seem odd to see the mouth damage at the same time as bristle worm spines, but I’ve never seen spines do this kind of damage.
I think supportive care is all you can really do for it at this point.
Jay

Sorry if I wasn’t clear, yes the wrasse is currently eating. I always see it eat frozen food when I add it to the tank. So it’s eating at least once a day.

I do have pellets on an automatic feeder and the wrasse generally will investigate the pellets but I couldn’t swear that it’s eating them.

Ill just continue to monitor thanks for your help. That’s kinda what I was thinking, but wanted to get input from people smarter than me.

 

[MJV15]

So my gramma has a face looks just like that and I’ve always thought it was from diving into the rock work somehow when i first got it.

That’s a good idea for the source of the damage. I’ll keep an eye on him at night and see where it’s going. During the day its generally swimming pretty high in the water column above the rock work.

 

[DiefsReef]

That’s a good idea for the source of the damage. I’ll keep an eye on him at night and see where it’s going. During the day its generally swimming pretty high in the water column above the rock work.

Did he recover??