Open sore on chromis

[briterco]

Hello,
I'm pretty new to this - set up a 125 g tank about 6 weeks ago, trying to go by the book. Having pretty good success so far. I have a yellow tang, royal gamma, maroon clown, red spotted hawk, 8 green chromis, skunk shrimp, and assorted clean-up crew. Water levels all good. A few days ago I noticed one of the chromis has a small wound on his underside between his gills. Later saw him spending a lot of time with letting the shrimp take care of his wound. Since then, the wound is getting a bit larger, although it looks clean - no fuzzy stuff or anything growing on it. His activity is fine - still swims with the school, eats like a maniac. Not sure if I should quarrentine him or let him stay and let the shrimp take care of things.
My suspicion is that he's been wounded by the hawk - the hawk likes to make a surprise terrorist attack on the chromis gang every once in a while. HAsn't killed any, seems to just want to inflict terror. I'm guessing the damaged guy just wan't paying enough attention and got hit.
Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[beth]

I agree, its likely a wound from aggression. I am having the same problem with 1 blue green chromis.
Its just my opinion but I have the suspicion that the cleaning activities of shrimp are not just related to parasite extraction, but may also be beneficial in some way with wound care.
Keep an eye on it. You may need to QT the fish, if you are willing to extract him from your tank.