Healthy wrasse dead in 24 hours

[QuarantinedCorals]

Hi guys, I had a katherines wrasse that was fine yesterday and today it’s dead. It had a bloated stomach, white stringy poop, was lethargic and was discolored at time of death. I’m currently holding 5 fish in a 75 gal qt tank as my tank is fallowing, I’ve had this fish for almost a year and didn’t have any issues with it until a few days ago when I noticed the white stringy poop which I didn’t think much it because it was eating just fine and acting normally. My qt is currently in 2.2 Copper power according to my Hanna checker, I added 6 scoops of metroplex to the water an hour ago because the katherines wasn’t eating. It’s dead now and now my flame wrasse is acting a bit strange, he ate live black worms earlier today, ignored food the last few hours I fed a few different kinds of food to make sure everyone else is fine, the others ate but the flame hasn’t since the morning. Please please help me figure out what’s going on I dont want to lose anyone else.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

@Humblefish would you be able to help me identify my problem?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am a bit confused. You have had the wrasse (Katherine's) for over a year. Why was it in qt? Was it added to others that were in qt for being new? Trying to gauge if it caught something from qt or maybe could not handle copper, how was it added to qt? Maybe I am just not grabbing your thread of conversation.

Please let us know more step by step how he went from a tank for a year, then to a qt with copper at full level. Thanks.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

I am a bit confused. You have had the wrasse (Katherine's) for over a year. Why was it in qt? Was it added to others that were in qt for being new? Trying to gauge if it caught something from qt or maybe could not handle copper, how was it added to qt? Maybe I am just not grabbing your thread of conversation.

Please let us know more step by step how he went from a tank for a year, then to a qt with copper at full level. Thanks.

So I had an outbreak and had to fallow my dt, put all my fish in qt, treated them once with copper and prazi and left them alone for 2 months, I’m 30 days away from introducing them back into the dt so I wanted to treat one last time to be safe, I started the copper treatment days ago, the katherines has been pooping white stringy stuff for a few days but wasn’t acting strange. In the morning the katherines was hiding, hid all day, about 5 hours later it was dead.

 

[Tamberav]

@Humblefish would you be able to help me identify my problem?

He doesn’t post here anymore. You can find him using google though.

it sounds like an internal infection or parasite. Copper lowers the immune system so sometimes it can cause new things to show up.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Thank you for the clarification. I am not sure as I do not use copper, but it can be very hard on some fish. Did you use any prazipro or metro for internal parasites?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am very sorry for your loss, those are pretty fish.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Thank you for the clarification. I am not sure as I do not use copper, but it can be very hard on some fish. Did you use any prazipro or metro for internal parasites?

I had treated with prazi a week ago, rushed to the store to buy metro and I added 6 scoops of it in the 75g qt but it didn’t make it.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

He doesn’t post here anymore. You can find him using google though.

it sounds like an internal infection or parasite. Copper lowers the immune system so sometimes it can cause new things to show up.

I’m just so baffled as to how he died so fast, i don’t even know how he got the parasite I’ve had it for so long and I’ve kept the qt sterile and haven’t added in quarantined fish to it, I’ve even treaded with prazi and copper before.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

I am very sorry for your loss, those are pretty fish.

I’m blind sided by this because I’m so close to adding my fish back to the dt and now I have to worry about internal parasites affecting my other 5 fish.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Without a necropsy, it will be hard to know if it was a parasite or something else. I have seen lots of liver issues with fish in captivity.

 

[Tamberav]

I’m just so baffled as to how he died so fast, i don’t even know how he got the parasite I’ve had it for so long and I’ve kept the qt sterile and haven’t added in quarantined fish to it, I’ve even treaded with prazi and copper before.

probably had it all along. Prazi in the water won’t be super effective for internal issues.

It also could be that copper is toxic so potentially he just didn’t handle it anymore.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Without a necropsy, it will be hard to know if it was a parasite or something else. I have seen lots of liver issues with fish in captivity.

I just saw my leopard wrasse poop some long stringy poop but it was a bit more clear rather than white, could it be the live black worms I gave it earlier?

 

[DeniseAndy]

The best you can do is treat with the prazipro once weekly for 3 weeks and maybe try the metro food. Not you soaking the food in metro as it is hard to get them to eat. I have used chloroquine food, triple antibiotic food, and metro/prazi food. My fish ate it no issues. Fed it daily for 14 days.

I cannot say, hey it worked, because I have no scientific proof. However, I treated a fish with popeye (or infection of eye) in tank with these foods and it went away after 3-5 days. Now, it could have been an injury that healed. Again, no proof, but I do think it helped.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

probably had it all along. Prazi in the water won’t be super effective for internal issues.

It also could be that copper is toxic so potentially he just didn’t handle it anymore.

So now my flame wrasse ignored food and is swimming a little strangely same with my leopard wrasse, do you think the copper may be the issue here? I put a bag of carbon in the tank and I’ll throw in cuprisorb if needed.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Could be anything actually. If you can catch the poop and look at it under the scope, it would help.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I have never used copper, but I know it can be pretty toxic for long periods or too fast raised or some fish.

Personally, I would do everything to try to get the copper out of the water. That is just me. I do not like copper.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

The best you can do is treat with the prazipro once weekly for 3 weeks and maybe try the metro food. Not you soaking the food in metro as it is hard to get them to eat. I have used chloroquine food, triple antibiotic food, and metro/prazi food. My fish ate it no issues. Fed it daily for 14 days.

I cannot say, hey it worked, because I have no scientific proof. However, I treated a fish with popeye (or infection of eye) in tank with these foods and it went away after 3-5 days. Now, it could have been an injury that healed. Again, no proof, but I do think it helped.

Do you think this issue will be solvable in my dt with good quality foods? My tangs seem completely fine with normal green poop, my wrasses just seem to be pooping weird stuff.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Fish can fight a lot if they have a healthy immune system. Food is a huge part of that.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

I have never used copper, but I know it can be pretty toxic for long periods or too fast raised or some fish.

Personally, I would do everything to try to get the copper out of the water. That is just me. I do not like copper.

I was terrified of ich, got that under control now I got some other issues I've never dealt with. I’m not gonna feed them any more today, tomorrow when I feed them I’ll monitor them behavior wise and I’ll see if I can spot the poops, that would be the only way to know whether or not to treat them for internal parasites right?