Foxface missing half of its tail

[MarkFernandez2103]

I just noticed the other day that half my foxface tail is missing. What could be biting it. When I bought it, it already had some nips on it. Is this some type of disease or aggression. Only time I see aggression is when it goes near my Watchman Goby and pistol cave the Goby will launch his face at them. But not biting.

 

Members of my 45 gallon tank

 

2x Ocellaris clownfish (Which the foxface schools and sleeps with)

 

1x Banggai Cardinal fish ( who also schools with the clowns and foxface)

 

1x Yellowtail Damsel fish

 

1x Yellow Watchman Goby

 

1x firefish

 

1x peppermint shrimp

 

1x tiger pistol shrimp

 

Snails and Hermits

 

And the foxfacw

[Jayva]

The damsel probably.

 

Then again rabbit fish are poisonous most fish know not to bite it. You may have fin rot.

[asting]

Interesting. The damsel is the likely culprit. watchman gobies typically aren't agressive, so that behavior sounds odd - I'm guessing it doesn't go more than 6 inches from its burrow so that probably isn't it anyway. It could also be the peppermint shrimp, but that would require the foxface to stay still long enough to be picked at.


At any rate, how large is the foxface? There could be added stress due to the size of your aquarium relative to the fish.

[lkoechle]

Pics would help. I also agree that stress could also play into it depending on the size of the foxface. and they grow fast. my scribbled rabbit (same genus as a foxface) went from 1 inch to 6 inches in a year.

[ajmckay]

+1 Try to post pics in situations like this going forward.

 

So without knowing much detail I would tend to err on the side of fin rot. Is only the tail fin affected? Did this happen suddenly or over time? Have you made any recent additions to the tank? IMO unless you're seeing it also during the day fin nipping probably isn't the issue (once fin nipping starts IME it only gets worse if left alone - like it doesn't just "work itself out").

 

I would Quarantine it and treat with an antibiotic no matter the cause. The antibiotic will cure the fin rot if that's what it has but more than that if fin nipping somehow is an issue then QT will allow it time to heal and antibiotics will prevent an infection which would likely kill the fish.

[Clown79]

45g is small for a foxface. i would think disease, fish are susceptible to it when stressed.

 

All the foxfaces I see in smaller tanks tend to not look so healthy.

 

I can't imagine any fish in your tank biting it other than the damsel.

[MarkFernandez2103]

The Damsel is only 1 inch the foxface is only 2 inches. So I'm not sure, it has been a gradual shift from few "bite marks" when I bought it. To today with half its tail gone . I don't have a quarantine tank so my last resort would be to return it to the LFS. At first I thought I was saving it since it was in a 20 long gallon tank with all kinds of aggressive fish like a trigger and hawkfish.

[Clown79]

Could be fin rot.

You could set up a hospital tank but you can't medicate in the dt.

[lkoechle]

Could be fin rot.

You could set up a hospital tank but you can't medicate in the dt.

 

20 gallon, even a 15 gallon, an HOB filter and a heater is all you need for a hospital tank.

pictures would still be really helpful