Rhino scorpionfish

[Mushutherhinoscorpion]

One of my rhino scorpionfish has on one side part of his gill broke of and the top half was hanging out for a day and to day broke off i have no idea how this happened. it dont dont look like a injury from any other fish in my tank I have one more rhino fish that is a few inches bigger lionfish that is much bigger and a pale nose moray eel at first I thought that you might have bit him but there is no outside damage whatsoever he still eats but not as much and still healthy color and still swims around I am just wondering if anybody knows what could have happened!! As i am at a lost and so is my fish guy from where I bought him from a few months ago

 

[beth]

I have never had this fish and know little about them, but they do routinely SHED, like snakes (or crabs, or shrimp, that molt). Is it possible that is what you are seeing? The picture is too poor quality to see details of what's going on. Shedding may be quite startling if you are not aware of what's happening.

 

[Mushutherhinoscorpion]

No i have had lionfish in the pass and iam them molting shedding their mucus layer skin they do a routine me every once in awhile this is actually a piece of the Gill sticking out of the the slit of the Gill cover you can see right above his fin it kind of looks like a feather

 

[Mushutherhinoscorpion]

Iam aware of the shedding i have seen them do it number of times

 

[beth]

This is an injury then and most likely aggression. Perhaps from the other rhino. Do you have the means to place this fish in a quarantine tank? Otherwise, there is likely no hope for it.

 

[Mushutherhinoscorpion]

The thing is it has no injury to the outside of the gill cover or anywhere for that matter on the outside of the body !! Could it be from eating? They will only accept live food and i feed them mollies and damsel! Im in the process of setting up a 250gallon and moving everyone to that tank and leaving this rhino in the 55 gallon

 

[beth]

How would eating cause this? Perhap it's an injury caused by being stuck somewhere and ripping to get dislodged. How is he doing?

In my exp, best not to feed fresh water items to saltwater fish....little nutritional value for saltwater animals.

 

[Mushutherhinoscorpion]

I only feed mollies because they are brackish fish and not that often I mostly feed them damsels...he is still very alert and his color is very good and breathing is pretty normal under the circumstance! I added some formula to boost immune system! ...and i was thinking mybe it was a injury that happened when he was caught and finally broke in half! I did notice that when i got him and comparing him with the other Rhino scorpion fish that when he would Breathe his gills didn't completely flattened like the first one I have .......

 

[beth]

I'm not sure that stirring up the tank for a move would benefit this fish considering he is weakened, and will always likely be weakened. Before you begin the move in earnest, you may went to get him in to an established QT.