Butterfly fish being attack

[vincegoh]

My vagabond butterfly is being attacked!!! I have no idea what attacked it but there are vertical cut marks down one side of the fish. Is it done by mantis shrimp or crabs? Or can it be the other butterfly fish

[Morgan]

Your post is too brief........Will not be able to advise base on what you give out.

You have to provide more info like size of tank

What type of fishes and qty

Invertebrates......bought / hitch hike

Aquascape.....fish do get injuries from corals cut

[vincegoh]

My tank is 2.5 month old hence not a lot of fishes.

Tank size: 5' x 2' x 2.5'

2 vagabond butterfly fish

2 clown fish

1 Banggai Cardinalfish

1 Tassle Filefish

1 blue legged hermit crab

2 dancing shrimps

2 turbo snails (the rest died - which bring another question, why?)

3 father duster worms

1 tube anemone

40kg of LR

No coral

I did saw few hitchhiker like crabs, brittleworms and one mantis shrimp (Hopefully just one only - this only is about 2cm long) Still trying to catch it.

Any advise? What might be the cause? Should I insolate the injured butterfly fish? Thanks

[hoppinghippos]

I"d say it could be the tube anemone?

[vincegoh]

Tube anemone don't attack fish by inflicting knife-like cut down the side of the fish, right?

I will need a CSI to do this investigation ....

[metals99]

is your butterfly eating??

healthy and how long have u had it?

[Morgan]

My 1st assumption is that the 2 butterflyfish cannot get along with each other.

Butterfly are territorial and aggressive towards its own kind unless they pair up.

Hope the 2 you are having is a pair if not then the injuries could be explain.

Another question....are your feather duster worms still alive or it has become food for the butterflies?

[vincegoh]

is your butterfly eating??

healthy and how long have u had it?

My butterfly are eating fine. I had them for over 3 weeks.

[vincegoh]

My 1st assumption is that the 2 butterflyfish cannot get along with each other.

Butterfly are territorial and aggressive towards its own kind unless they pair up.

Hope the 2 you are having is a pair if not then the injuries could be explain.

Another question....are your feather duster worms still alive or it has become food for the butterflies?

U are right. Initially for a week, one of them is chasing the other one. Now they are getting along quite alright. Except there is occassional bicker but no attack to each other.

The feather dusters are fine. However, my green "bubbles" macro aglae kanna eatten up by the butterfly after 3 days... wasted $12...

[fishnerd]

Poor fish, hope it recovers...I've added StressCoat before to help fish heal...think it does work. Well, Can't be sure if I'm right but I think if there is a mantis running loose, it did the cutting. mantis shrimp are formidable predators and some species have sharp piercing front mandibles to catch and hold prey...Butterflyfish fell to attacks while sleeping in the rock crevices I think. Cuts at the sides occur normally with surgeons (hence their name) using the sharp scarpel near their caudal fins to slash each other. Butterflies have brush like teeth (spp. Chaetodons) and can bite off bits of fins or jab their enemies with their extended dorsal spines but not cuts like what you described.

[vincegoh]

Poor fish, hope it recovers...I've added StressCoat before to help fish heal...think it does work. Well, Can't be sure if I'm right but I think if there is a mantis running loose, it did the cutting. mantis shrimp are formidable predators and some species have sharp piercing front mandibles to catch and hold prey...Butterflyfish fell to attacks while sleeping in the rock crevices I think. Cuts at the sides occur normally with surgeons (hence their name) using the sharp scarpel near their caudal fins to slash each other. Butterflies have brush like teeth (spp. Chaetodons) and can bite off bits of fins or jab their enemies with their extended dorsal spines but not cuts like what you described.

Exactly as wat I have suspected. But I do need more confirmation from the experts out there.

Thanks.

By the way, the cuts on the butterfly are recovering...