Leopard Wrasse Starving Herself

Idoc · May 3, 2019

ngoodermuth said:
Do you have pets? Kind of looks like a dog or cat hair...

I was able to look at it under high magnification and it's definitely looks like a mucus strand of some sort.

Idoc · May 3, 2019

coral-boss said:
any way you can force feed her with a pipette or syringe maybe if you grab her? idk if that's even a possible idea but maybe its worth a shot to get some meds into her system with the food

I attempted this morning to force feed her with a pipette. I could just get the pipette into her mouth, but there was no way i would be able to get any further into her stomach without doing damage. I pushed some good into her mouth, which she quickly spit out once i put her back in the tank.

Idoc · May 4, 2019

Well, poor thing fought hard but didn't make it.

Now on to keeping the second one healthy!

Drewamodd · Jul 11, 2022

Idoc said:
It's extremely sad to watch this occurring. I picked up 2 leopard wrasses from my LFS about 6 weeks ago. One is thriving in quarantine, and the other just started starving herself.

The weak one was the slowest to bury itself initially, last to start taking frozen food as well. But she just stopped eating... and then also refused live brine that she was initially eating. She would go up after the food aggressively and then turn away and ignore it... while her tank mate would make herself fat from over eating.

Now, she is no longer burying herself, razor thin, lying on her side, and won't eat anything even if it is laying on the bottom right by her nose. Agonizing watching her starve herself. I think we are beyond the point of no return now.

On day two with the exact same problem with my blue streak cleaner. Today it’s just kinda flipping it’s fin and lying miserably on its side and I don’t know wat to do to help.

Idoc · Jul 15, 2022

Drewamodd said:
On day two with the exact same problem with my blue streak cleaner. Today it’s just kinda flipping it’s fin and lying miserably on its side and I don’t know wat to do to help.

From my experience, once they are at this point, there really isn't anything you can do to force them to eat. I've attempted to force feed with syringes in the past, but don't recommend that regularly. A leopard wrasse's mouth is extremely small and damage will be done force feeding.

These wrasses are notorious for coming in with parasites and worms as well...added on to the fact that they are difficult to switch to frozen foods...makes leopards difficult to acclimate. Once they are acclimated, they are simple to keep. The leopard from my above posts in 2019 is still very healthy and thriving. I haven't attempted any new ones lately, though.

At this point, it might be more humane to euthanize the fish. It took a few weeks for mine originally to shrivel up and die...it was hard to watch!