Lionfish Antenna?

[MichaelsLilGray]

I thought they would just grow back in time.. (the little antennas above his eyes) but ive had my lion for close to 8 months now easy..possibly a year..and they still havnt grown back... am i doin something wrong here? water is 0'd all the way out... ph 8.2... feed him silversides, clams, shrimp.. whatever else i can scrounge up lol. Any ideas?

[roka64]

Hmmm, that is an interesting question, I would have assumed they would grow back.
What happened to them?
How far down was antenna lost (was it to the base)?

[MichaelsLilGray]

well i was originally told that they lost them kind of as a molt... he lost his left one half way.. then all the way to the base... then his right one did the same thing.. you can see like a stalk to them, as to where they use to be... i guess a picture would help lol.

[roka64]

Wow, I didn't know they "molted" like that.
I will definitely follow along, sorry I can't help, but this is a new one to me!

[MichaelsLilGray]

id say some other fish were eating on him but... his tank mates changed from the left loss to the right loss... so im assuming it was some other cause..

[roka64]

Well, I did some reading and they tend to shed to remove parasites, algae and hitch hikers. They have a cuticle or "mucous" that surrounds their bodies to help protect them from the above. Sorry that doesn't help you at all but I found it interesting and may help other folks in the future.
I can not find anything on how long or if they will grow back. Typically, fins will grow back if they haven't been chewed to the base...
Hopefully some one else can educate us both, since lions are one of my favorite fish.

[MichaelsLilGray]

Thanks for researching more than you had to scott =D all of his fins look perfect... the only thing is those top antenna... so i dont think its parasitically related.... id like to know why this happened too =(

[roka64]

Yeah, it seems the shedding is more on the body than just the antennas....very strange indeed.