Lost my new silver belly wrasse.

Nexpress

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I got a juvi silver belly wrasse from my LFS like a week ago. It went straight into the sand bed when I released it into the tank (drip acclimated for an hour), but was out the next morning and actively hunting pods on the live rock. However, it wouldnt eat anything other than pods. I tried feeding it frozen brine shrimp, live worms, TDO pellets...nothing. It started becoming thin over the next few days, started hiding in the sand bed for 20+ hours/day. I thought it just needs time.

This morning I found it laying dead on the sand bed. There's some red scarring on its gills and the belly, which were not present yesterday. Ammonia is 0. All my other parameters are in the normal range. Rest of the livestock is doing well.
2 Ocellaris clowns
1 royal gramma
1 hectors goby
1 rainfordis goby
1 pink streaked wrasse
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
A few trochus snails, nerite snails, nassarius snails

I haven't seen any aggression from its other tank mates. Any ideas what might have killed it?

20240307_125130.jpg 20240307_125220.jpg 20240307_125147.jpg 20240307_125258.jpg
 

i cant think

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I got a juvi silver belly wrasse from my LFS like a week ago. It went straight into the sand bed when I released it into the tank (drip acclimated for an hour), but was out the next morning and actively hunting pods on the live rock. However, it wouldnt eat anything other than pods. I tried feeding it frozen brine shrimp, live worms, TDO pellets...nothing. It started becoming thin over the next few days, started hiding in the sand bed for 20+ hours/day. I thought it just needs time.

This morning I found it laying dead on the sand bed. There's some red scarring on its gills and the belly, which were not present yesterday. Ammonia is 0. All my other parameters are in the normal range. Rest of the livestock is doing well.
2 Ocellaris clowns
1 royal gramma
1 hectors goby
1 rainfordis goby
1 pink streaked wrasse
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
A few trochus snails, nerite snails, nassarius snails

I haven't seen any aggression from its other tank mates. Any ideas what might have killed it?

20240307_125130.jpg 20240307_125220.jpg 20240307_125147.jpg 20240307_125258.jpg
It could possibly be uronema which this species seems to be very prone to (more so than most other species of Halichoeres).
 

TX_REEF

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Sorry that happened. It's possible you had bad luck and got a picky specimen that only wanted pods and possibly starved. Your sand bed also looks quite shallow for a burrowing wrasse in my opinion.
 

Sharkbait19

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The redness could be a result of post mortem - it’s doesn’t look like the lesions you’d see with uronema (at least to me).
This does sound like a starvation issue - some fish just don’t acclimate well to tank life.
It could possibly be uronema which this species seems to be very prone to (more so than most other species of Halichoeres).
Out of curiosity, which ones do you think get it less commonly?
In my halichoeres attempts the first was a leuxocanthas moribund upon arrival (though no signs of uro) and the second was a Chrysus that died of suspected uronema.
 

i cant think

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The redness could be a result of post mortem - it’s doesn’t look like the lesions you’d see with uronema (at least to me).
This does sound like a starvation issue - some fish just don’t acclimate well to tank life.

Out of curiosity, which ones do you think get it less commonly?
In my halichoeres attempts the first was a leuxocanthas moribund upon arrival (though no signs of uro) and the second was a Chrysus that died of suspected uronema.
I find Leucoxanthus and Chrysus to get uronema more often than say an Iridis does.
If I’m honest, I’ve never (or very rarely) seen uronema in Halichoeres outside of Chrysus and Leucoxanthus.
 
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Nexpress

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My LFS has a few of these fish in stock. I was thinking to get another one and try my luck... i love this fish. But the LFS kept all these fish in the same tank and if it's uronema what are the chances of that new one surviving?. For uro, is there anything I can treat it with while qting to increase the chances of survival?
 

nereefpat

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Those are among the best wrasses for captivity, but almost all wrasses are really cruddy shippers. If you try again, I would make sure that it eats at the store.

I would suspect internal parasites over uronema.
 

Sharkbait19

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My LFS has a few of these fish in stock. I was thinking to get another one and try my luck... i love this fish. But the LFS kept all these fish in the same tank and if it's uronema what are the chances of that new one surviving?. For uro, is there anything I can treat it with while qting to increase the chances of survival?
There isn’t really any treatment for uronema, but it rarely will impact other fish other than the few that come in with it (though you can see die offs in chromis and anthias).
For reference, this is mine that died of suspected uro:
1709849174382.jpeg

It only acted normal for a day or so before it went moribund. It isn’t a clear red band, but you can see where it started to form on the tail end.
 

nereefpat

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There isn’t really any treatment for uronema, but it rarely will impact other fish other than the few that come in with it (though you can see die offs in chromis and anthias).
For reference, this is mine that died of suspected uro:
1709849174382.jpeg

It only acted normal for a day or so before it went moribund. It isn’t a clear red band, but you can see where it started to form on the tail end.
Darn. A nice adult that looks otherwise healthy too. Bummer.
 

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