Have you ever seen your fish shed before?

[FutureInterest]

So I'm sitting in front of my tank with my laptop as usual... when I notice that my scribbled rabbitfish has what looks to be clear stringy material hanging off him all over the place. It looks like streamers on a kite except they're just hanging off his body all over and clear. So at this point I'm in full panic mode and I'm mentally running through all the diseases that exist and can't think of any... Except to think he's got some wierd worm maybe... Anyways, he's acting completely normal picking at diatoms as usual and then I notice the lil shreds of clear stuff that I'm just calling "skin" for now start to peel away and completely slough off. And now he looks good as new... Very wierd.

 

[cgill311]

Dude...you got the wierd one of the two.

 

[FutureInterest]

Heh no doubt... does your scribbled eat sand? This guy another really wierd thing... he eats substrate till he's bulging and then quietly spreads clean sand all over the place. If you want to trade scribbles, I'm game .

 

[nishant3789]

a lot of wrasses form a mucous cocoon when they burry themselves in the sand, although ihave seen them form it even when they havent recently burried themselves. I am not sure whether this applies to other fish though. I would add something like stress coat or something similar incase the fish is lacking in its normal mucous covering which all fish have

 

[cgill311]

FutureInterest;51196 wrote: Heh no doubt... does your scribbled eat sand? This guy another really wierd thing... he eats substrate till he's bulging and then quietly spreads clean sand all over the place. If you want to trade scribbles, I'm game .

No, mine doesn't eat sand. It's been a model citizen in my tank. I'll pass on your offer!

Have you tried feeding it dried seaweed occasionally? Mine seems to enjoy a vege snack once a week.

 

[FutureInterest]

Yah he gets nori every other day...

I've got 6 wrasses, so I know what the mucous stuff looks like. This was thin, transparent, "sheets" of stuff. He's his normal wierd self today, so I'll watch the scribbled tonight at around the same time, which happened to be right before lights out. Perhaps its a before bedtime ritual.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Yeah, rabbits regular shed slime coats- its normal.

 

[FutureInterest]

Excellent.

 

[justonemoretank]

Wait!! Dont add Stress Coat (by Aquarium Phamac.) to your tank! I havent ever tried it but I have heard of others and your skimmer will go nuts and overflow for a day. LOL Not sure what is going on with the shedding of the slime coat issue. Hopefully it gets better soon or it is just "normal" for your fish.

 

[nishant3789]

with most medications you should turn off your skimmer after dosing them anyways though

 

[FutureInterest]

Thanks guys. From what I've been able to gleen online, panda is right that this is a normal function for rabbitfish. I've had this guy awhile though and had never witnessed it "shedding". You learn something new everyday!