China wrasse (Anampses neoguinaicus)

TvanB1 · Oct 9, 2019

mattzang said:
i haven't seen any abnormal poo and she looks nice and chunky.

did you do metro + focus?

yeah i don't plan on feeding just pellets, i just thought that was a great sign that she was eating pellets at the lfs. other than she's still on some weird lighting schedule (in sandbed by 5 pm so far) she seems quite active and tame.

I did not give my current one metronidazole. Just prazipro and a few weeks in QT for observation. They seem very sensitive to medication.

OrionN · Oct 9, 2019

My pair with the Flame angels trio

OrionN · Oct 9, 2019

Devaji · Oct 9, 2019

silly question but...
is this fish also called earmuff wrasse? or is that another wrasse altogether?

mattzang · Oct 9, 2019

Devaji said:
silly question but...
is this fish also called earmuff wrasse? or is that another wrasse altogether?

earmuff is a halichoeres wrasse

Devaji · Oct 9, 2019

mattzang said:
earmuff is a halichoeres wrasse

I thought it was a different wrasse but was not sure...sorry for the interruption
now back to reagular programming

OrionN · Oct 9, 2019

It is the China (as in porcelain) wrasse. Misread the question.

mattzang · Oct 14, 2019

what'd you guys feed them? did they eat well in qt for you?

mine was mowing down pellets at the lfs, i thought awesome that's gotta be a great sign. i get her home and try feeding pellets (ranging from nyos pellets a little larger size to small PE mysis pellets to the reef nutrition ones) and she kinda eh doesn't like them.

ok, meaty food. she kinda goes for hikari mysis, but after a couple of days starts to ignore food including LRS and rods. i did up some masstick (reading that some people got them eating that) and nothing. so my last resort was to run to an lfs that sells live blackworms, success! for a few days at least.. now the last couple of days she kinda eats them a bit then spits them back up and ignores them.

medication wise i've done general cure 2 rounds, but nothing else so far. humblefish said anampses wrasses do ok with copper so i'd like to do 14 days of theraputic level, but was wanting her to be eating well before starting down that road.

i do have her in a 10 gallon tank which seems like a mistake in retrospect. i have a 20 gallon long hanging around that'd probably be better, but swapping tanks at this moment seems like it might just freak her out more.

OrionN · Oct 14, 2019

I don't feed mine anything special, other than what I feed the rest of the wrasses.
Otohime pellets C1, mixture of flaked, and frozen mysis. Maybe you should alternate what you feed her so she won't get tire of eating the same thing. Or feed her a mixture with a little of everything.

mattzang · Oct 14, 2019

OrionN said:
I don't feed mine anything special, other than what I feed the rest of the wrasses.
Otohime pellets C1, mixture of flaked, and frozen mysis. Maybe you should alternate what you feed her so she won't get tire of eating the same thing. Or feed her a mixture with a little of everything.

i have. i basically do up my frozen mix for the day that i feed my DT fish and alternate several small feedings between the blackworms and the frozen mix and some pellets hoping she'll start to eat those, just seems weird she'll go hard for all of it one day and then a few days later start to ignore the same stuff

TvanB1 · Oct 14, 2019

mattzang said:
i have. i basically do up my frozen mix for the day that i feed my DT fish and alternate several small feedings between the blackworms and the frozen mix and some pellets hoping she'll start to eat those, just seems weird she'll go hard for all of it one day and then a few days later start to ignore the same stuff

Masstick would be worth a shot. Try mixing it with other foods to make it more appealing.

OrionN · Oct 14, 2019

Have a dither fish is very helpful. I often have my clowns in my QT system. The clowns are agressive eater, and get the other fish excited and eat too.

mattzang · Oct 14, 2019

yeah i did buy an azure damsel so the wrasse wouldn't be alone in there, but he's kind of a shy damsel lol

she actually has ate decently well today, worms plus lrs plus hikari spirulina brine with some brightwell garlic.

thanks for the suggestions guys!

OrionN · Oct 22, 2019

Got home a little today and got this two pictures, which show how healthy and fat my two China Wrasse are.

mattzang · Oct 22, 2019

mine just went super downhill, i'm kinda shocked it's still alive. she goes from laying on her side to swimming around lazily but totally ignoring food. i have ramped up copper to 2.0, but ughhhhhhhhhh can't imagine this fish will live for 2 weeks being this lethargic and not eating..

i did start up a different QT tank that i'm pondering moving her into. it's bigger, better filtered, better lit, more hiding spots.. she'd have to go through general cure/copper again, but i have that one at lower copper levels at the moment. maybe the other fish will encourage her to eat

TvanB1 · Oct 22, 2019

mattzang said:
mine just went super downhill, i'm kinda shocked it's still alive. she goes from laying on her side to swimming around lazily but totally ignoring food. i have ramped up copper to 2.0, but ughhhhhhhhhh can't imagine this fish will live for 2 weeks being this lethargic and not eating..

i did start up a different QT tank that i'm pondering moving her into. it's bigger, better filtered, better lit, more hiding spots.. she'd have to go through general cure/copper again, but i have that one at lower copper levels at the moment. maybe the other fish will encourage her to eat

Sorry to hear this, I really hope she pulls through.
I would pull copper and try to increase oxygen to give her a better chance. Proves to be a very difficult fish to get through quarantine. Maybe try adding live pods to the tank to encourage feeding.

mattzang · Oct 22, 2019

TvanB1 said:
Sorry to hear this, I really hope she pulls through.
I would pull copper and try to increase oxygen to give her a better chance. Proves to be a very difficult fish to get through quarantine. Maybe try adding live pods to the tank to encourage feeding.

she was refusing to eat before i started copper, though. i'm following the humblefish QT protocol so gotta copper somehow and i figured better to just do it and get her out of QT asap. i should've started it right away and she'd be done by now

i moved her to the 20 gallon with some other more social fish like a solon wrasse and royal gramma, so she seemed a lot more active. and that tank is only at like 0.5 ppm copper.

oxygen shouldn't be an issue, i have a power filter, 2 power heads aimed at the surface, and an airstone in there. i do think me trying to qt her in a 10 gallon tank was a mistake, that was just too small for her. she just paced all the time when i first put her in there. once i got the 20 gallon i should've got that going

TvanB1 · Oct 22, 2019

TvanB1 · Oct 23, 2019

Waiting for food

mattzang · Oct 23, 2019

so in a twist, the move from the 10 gallon to the 20 gallon seems a resounding success so far. the china wrasse was out and active all day, ate a range of foods and just seemed generally happy. i don't want to get ahead of myself, but that was not how i expected it to go.

i wonder if @OrionN was onto something with the dither fish, as i had the damsel in the 10 with her, but it was pretty reclusive. having it with the solon wrasse seems quite beneficial as they're both out and about all day.