Saddle butterfly with sore lips?

[jassz]

I will try and post a picture soon (my neighbour has borrowed my camera ).

Actually this fish has quite a bit of black and yellow as well as white. I don't see anything such as what you described as flukes. I've had the fish about a month now.

I think he's starting to feel better. And he is starting to at least try the food I give (he spits it out again), so that gives me hope! He still prefers the aptisia though. He's eating those like there's no tomorrow. Fortunately I have a good supply of those!

[Delphinus]

I know what the fish looks like, I have a pair myself. I just think with the lighter background it will be harder to spot flukes, if they were there, than, say on a raccoon butterfly or something darker overall. But if you've had him a month and not noticed any opaque spots on the body or eyes then maybe it's not flukes, hopefully it's not.

Butterflies in general are very fussy eaters so it just takes them a while to get used to the idea of what you offer being "actual food". He should come around. Both mine eat flake and pellets as well as frozen (and aiptasia and majano .. and .. um .. blastomussa's, bubble corals, acan's, open brains .. any manner of SPS .. gorgonians .. byssal glands of clams .. zoanthids .. palythoa's ... you name it!! .. unfortunately not a reef safe fish by any means! But they are the first butterfly I've attempted {have tried several others} that readily adapted to dry food like pellets and flakes). So my guess is yours will eventually warm up to what you offer. Have you tried clam on the half shell yet? He might go for that if you're worried he's not getting enough.

[jassz]

Here is my sorry attempt at getting pictures of his lips. We don't call him Zoom Zoom for nothing! He never stops moving (unlike my lionfish, who kept deliberately striking a pose right in front of me), and then my camera seems to turn pink areas to white anyway. I've also included the only infocus picture I managed to get, so you could see how pretty he is.

I am happy to report that he does seem to be feeling better. He's almost wiped the aptisia out of my tank, and I must have had forty pounds of it! He does pick up the food that I give sometimes, gives it a shake then spits it out. Hopefully that means he's getting some of it. But he must be feeling better because his appetite has returned.

What I read was that if they hurt their mouth in transport they would not recover, so hopefully that is not the case here.

BTW, any scratches you see on the pictures are, sadly, my glass and not the fish. I will never use one of those magnetic cleaners again! I had no idea it was scratchign the glass and now it is impossible to get the scratches clean. Momma needs a new tank.

[jassz]

So, yesterday for the first time I saw a white blob on one of the butterfly's front fins. It's really hard to get a picture, but it's very easy to see. About 3/4 inch in diameter, adn opaque white where the rest of his fin is rather transparent. Does that sound like a fluke? Or just a fluke because we've been discussing it? I zoomed in on Zoom Zoom's fin if that helps.