Fish stung by bristleworm?

[Vitaly]

I have owned a Fridmani Dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani) for about 6 months and he has been healthy and happy. This morning I noticed that there are white, thin, fibrous structures extending from his left side (none of the right side). I have been watching him this morning and he is eating, actively swimming and not showing any obvious symptoms of infection (gill flaring, lethargy, etc).

Here are some pictures of these structures. I purposefully overexposed the image to enhance the structures.

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/stepensk/shared/Aquaria/Frid-1.JPG

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/stepensk/shared/Aquaria/Frid-2.JPG

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/stepensk/shared/Aquaria/Frid-3.JPG

Could this white, fibrous processes be bristle's for the bristleworm? I have been stung on a few occasions and this looks similar to the appearance of my fingers following contact.

If these are bristleworm stings will the Fridmani shed them naturally?

[medic29]

It looks like a good guess. Is the fish rubbing that side on any rocks that you can tell? I would think it would be trying to rub them off....just as you or I would.

[webbstock]

Maybe you have a tribe of pygmy warriors attacking the fish with blowdarts...

You might want to try to isolate the fish keep an eye on it, possibly medicate it if signs of infection appear. That looks like a pretty good hit on the skin mucosal layer and it would be ashame to lose the fish.

[Vitaly]

Thanks for the feedback gentleman. As of this evening most of the barbs appear to have been shed. There may be one or two left, but I came home after lights off (actinics only) and since the Fridmani is pretty agile and was hard to see.

I have learned that some species of bristleworm barbs can be "hooked" and thus may take up to three days to be shed from the skin.

All in all the Fridmani is healthy and active. No worries.