coris wrasse eating ick?

[Thomas Gregory]

I'm currently doing a Hyposalinity therapy on my tank because a new BJT brought in ick and i just got it down to 1.010 and tonight i will do the final water change to bring it down to 1.009. but i was sitting here and i look over at my tank and my Red Coris wrasse was picking at my BJT that has a few ick spots. At first i thought he was messing with her but then i realized she was letting him and he was taking off the white spots.

Now i could find anything on this online with a quick search so i was wondering if anyone knew if this is normal or if this might hurt my wrasse? she seams to be letting him do it and it looks like most the spots are gone now.

 

[Triggreef]

Juvenile wrasse are sometimes said to take on the role of a cleaner although I've never seen it first hand. I would suspect the behavior would more likely be towards flukes or some other parasite that is large enough to see (for the wrasse). You can't see flukes but Maybe fish can. Ich is a single cell and way too small to see. It also embeds into the skin of the host too deep for even cleaner shrimp to target. The white spot that you see is actually the fishes mucus reaction to the parasite not the actual parasite. It could be removing dead skin tissue though.

 

[Thomas Gregory]

so he is eating the mucus or you think it is flukes? i haven't researched them so im not sure what they are.

 

[Brautumn]

I have read on several sites and watched shows that small juvenile coris wrasses will sometimes pick parasites off of fish. Once they get older it will subside. I am not sure how eating the parasite affects the wrasse in captivity but this has been shown that this habit happens in the wild.

 

[Triggreef]

so he is eating the mucus or you think it is flukes? i haven't researched them so im not sure what they are.

Impossible to know without having access to the fish. Could be either, both, or neither.

A freshwater dip could verify flukes however hypo will not treat it effectively. It's a small clear worm so very hard if not impossible for us to see. Could be any other parasite as well my only point was that it is certainly not eating ich off your trigger.

 

[Thomas Gregory]

What can i do to prove its ick and not flukes?

 

[Triggreef]

What can i do to prove its ick and not flukes?

How many fish do you have?

You can take ich out of the equation altogether. Pull the fish. Quarantine them (I use TTM or tank transfer method) and keep your main display system fallow (with no fish) for 76 days. I personally don't like hypo because there are many ways it can go wrong, and there are ich strains proven to be resistant to hypo anyway so its a faulty method at best.

If you use TTM, you can also treat for flukes at the same time (with prazipro on transfers 2 and 4) and then just house the fish in a clean system until your display has been fallow for the recommended time.

Your other option is to continue with the way your doing it. Which may or may not work. Then if you verify flukes are present treat with prazipro later. You could probably do it at the same time as hypo and it won't hurt but I probably wouldn't just because hypo is running a fine line between doing it correctly and killing the fish to begin with. Wouldn't add another stressor to the equation.

 

[Thomas Gregory]

I have 1 harlequin tusk, 2 BJT, coris wrasse and 4 green chomis. All are small. No more than 3"-4".

I would like to do it in the main display but if i really need to take them out i can. Should i test to see if it is flukes or should i let the HYPO run for a bit and see what it does?

 

[Triggreef]

It's obviously more work to do what I suggested but also higher chance of success imo.

If you opt to keep going with this hypo, make sure you are using a calibrated refractometer and checking daily, as well as using a good ato to keep the specific gravity perfect. 1.008 fish might die. 1.010 ich may hatch and reinfect fish beginning a new cycle and creating a need to start the clock again.

A freshwater dip of either trigger should reveal it there are flukes or not. Research the correct way to do that if you make the attempt. You haven't spouted off any signs of flukes, I merely suggested it as one out of thousands of possible larger parasites the wrasse could be pecking at. Or he may just be cleaning off some dead skin tissue. Who knows?

 

[Thomas Gregory]

Dang. Ok i sleep on it and come up with what i want to do while im at work. Thanks for the help. I would like to get the male trigger dipped because he is the one i think brought it in... but he only started today coming out of the rocks to eat and even then if i more at all he shoots back in.

 

[Triggreef]

Just make sure you read up on the dip... matching alkalinity, temp, using a dark container so you can see the worms when they fall off, as they turn white.

 

[Thomas Gregory]

Will do. Thanks again

 

[Humblefish]

Good advice by @Triggreef above. In addition to eating dead skin tissue, cleaner shrimp/wrasses can theoretically pick off "surface" parasites & worms such as velvet & flukes. However, relying solely on them to solve your disease problem is an unrealistic expectation. In addition, these cleaners are unable to remove ich trophonts because those actually burrow in under the epithelium (outer skin layer) and that is out of reach for them.

 

[Thomas Gregory]

@Humblefish the wrasse pick at the trigger was just something i noticed today and wanted to make sure it was natural because i could find anything on "cleaner wrasse". I am doing Hypo right now because i thought it was ick to take care of the problem.

 

[Humblefish]

@Humblefish the wrasse pick at the trigger was just something i noticed today and wanted to make sure it was natural because i could find anything on "cleaner wrasse". I am doing Hypo right now because i thought it was ick to take care of the problem.

Understood. I was just using the opportunity to clarify what "cleaners" will/will not do. ;)