Emergency- my wrasse is dying!

[SallyWho]

I've been dealing with a wonky copper situation in a different thread, but I think this deserves its own. I noticed my wrasse struggling to swim a little bit yesterday, but this morning he looks bad. Water parameters are listed below. I turned off the powerhead because it seems to just be blowing him around. There's a hob filter and air stone going to keep the water oxygenated. I didn't catch it on camera, but he'll got into a corner on the bottom and alligator roll. I just put a little bit of frozen food in there and once he realized it was there, he got up off the bottom and drunkenly ate. And he really did eat- pursued pieces of mysis and didn't spit any out, despite doing most of it tilted on his side. But now he's back to rolling on the bottom. Swim bladder issue? Damaged spine from jumping into the glass lid (he's done that once or twice)? What can do I, if anything?? I don't want to lose him!

Salinity 1.023 (a little low, but that's consistent with how it's been as I slowly raise it from the 1.018 he shipped in at)
pH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.05
Nitrate 5
Alk 9.5
Copper (relevant due to recent attempt at dosing) 0.46ppm

 

[HairyGary]

Looks like he is injured and more than likely from the lid when he jumped. Its good he is eating but more times than not he may not recover.

 

[SallyWho]

Looks like he is injured and more than likely from the lid when he jumped. Its good he is eating but more times than not he may not recover.

If it's a swim bladder issue though, is there anything I can do? :'(

 

[HairyGary]

Tough one. This is an option but proves difficult.

Venting a Swim Bladder: Black Cap Basslet

I'm sure some of you have seen my last post in regards to my Black Cap from Divers Den arriving with a swim bladder issue. After not receiving any help from LA Divers Den except "we hope your fish gets better" i decided to look into venting the swim bladder. With the help from @Humblefish he...

www.reef2reef.com

Epsom salt works with freshwater but I dont think it works here.

It appears to be an injury as opposed to swim bladder. My experience with swim bladder is the fish trying to stay less buoyant. He is just having issues swimming and his tail is turned to one side and appears to be bent some. If he is injured all you can do is feed him. He may recover but more times than not he may not. I love wrasse but they are jumpers and we have all experienced the same.

 

[SallyWho]

It's the upside down swimming and corkscrewing that gets me. He twists and "kinks" in both directions. Do fish get concussions?

 

[Tamberav]

Looks like a spinal injury to me. He is using his fins but the back half of him is pretty immobile. I use mesh/net lids as my wrasse spook and bounce into them now and again.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I agree with the others who say it appears to be a spinal injury. this is very common with wrasses as they can spook and either jump into the lid, or swim into the side of the tank. Unfortunately the prognosis isn't good. I've never had one recover from a spinal injury. I believe others have, but if it stops eating, it is a goner. Hopefully it will continue to eat for you and recover. Good luck!

 

[PghReef]

Not sure if this would pertain to your situation or not but I had a melanarus wrasse I bought 10 months ago. Fine at the store, ate greedily, went through 2 prazipro treatments and a metro/focus feed regimen no problems.

Then I started the copper, also had a lemonpeel and tomini in the qt, and within days he was swimming odd like that and looked to have a spinal injury. I thought he was a goner and knew if I left him in copper he would certainly perish. I couldn't bring myself to give up so threw him in an established frag tank. I watched him for a few days in the qt and to my amazement he seemed better. After a month or so I was happy to not see any signs of disease. I decided not to reattempt copper treatment and just transfer him to my display. Healthy, active, and as expected from wrasse to this day.

Did mine have some minor spinal injury that recovered that fast? I doubt it but its possible I guess. I suspect he just didnt tolerate coppwr at all which is odd because people qt wrasse in copper all the time but you can still have a sensitive individual that just cant tolerate it.

 

[SallyWho]

Not sure if this would pertain to your situation or not but I had a melanarus wrasse I bought 10 months ago. Fine at the store, ate greedily, went through 2 prazipro treatments and a metro/focus feed regimen no problems.

Then I started the copper, also had a lemonpeel and tomini in the qt, and within days he was swimming odd like that and looked to have a spinal injury. I thought he was a goner and knew if I left him in copper he would certainly perish. I couldn't bring myself to give up so threw him in an established frag tank. I watched him for a few days in the qt and to my amazement he seemed better. After a month or so I was happy to not see any signs of disease. I decided not to reattempt copper treatment and just transfer him to my display. Healthy, active, and as expected from wrasse to this day.

Did mine have some minor spinal injury that recovered that fast? I doubt it but its possible I guess. I suspect he just didnt tolerate coppwr at all which is odd because people qt wrasse in copper all the time but you can still have a sensitive individual that just cant tolerate it.

That's very interesting, because I recently started copper. I wonder if I did a series of big ol' water changes and tossed in some carbon, if that might make a difference. It can't hurt, can it?

 

[SallyWho]

Looks like a spinal injury to me. He is using his fins but the back half of him is pretty immobile. I use mesh/net lids as my wrasse spook and bounce into them now and again.

What kind/brand of mesh lid do you use, if you don't mind my asking? And how do you deal with the salt creep from the tank being open and the water surface being agitated?

 

[PghReef]

That's very interesting, because I recently started copper. I wonder if I did a series of big ol' water changes and tossed in some carbon, if that might make a difference. It can't hurt, can it?

I ramp up my copper slowly over a week or so. I waa only halfway there when he started acting odd. I paused raising the copper any further and watched for a few days and he declined every day until I yanked him from the treatment and placed in the frag tank. The angel and tang were fine and I finished the copper treatment on them no issues.

 

[Tamberav]

What kind/brand of mesh lid do you use, if you don't mind my asking? And how do you deal with the salt creep from the tank being open and the water surface being agitated?

Custom polycarbonate lid (made from one piece) with mesh center. There isn't really much salt creep at all. Wipe it down now and again.

Most people use screen lids of various types.

 

[HairyGary]

BRS and Red Sea sell DIY lids that are inexpensive and decent