Macneill’s Assessor in Rough Shape

[litsoh]

Promising signs today, he’s been moving around a bit which is a first. Still tends to lay on the bottom and I have yet to see him take any food at all.

 

[Nordy]

My cleaner wrasse jumped behind my tank. Such a Wiley racey wrasse, always at the surface, always a favorite. Less than 1/2 a foot distance behind my tank and the wall it’s in Front of. Landed in the middle. I have contingencies thought out for these misfortunes, but limited that day, I took a deep breath, grabbed my yard stick, and pulled him to my reach and covered him in my hand. He was scuffed, and plenty of nasties covered from a pretty uncleaned area on the floor there. I thought about grabbing a cup of saltwater from the sump to rinse him, but I just wanted to minimize any more stress on the little guy and released him in his tank. Lights went down for an hour, kept my fingers crossed and left. Next day he was out, but looked heavily abraised and mucusy. Resilient little fish. Hyperactive as ever and swim/playing at the top as usual today. Sometimes tough to keep my jumpers aquamarined and not terrestrial when test flying out of the glass rectangle. My pencil wrasse jumped a month ago, this was a feeding time, and I only lifted the corner of the lid to put in the food in a magnetic defroster cup. Managed to save him too, but very stressed, injured. Disappeared for a week at least. Doesn’t come out of the sand nearly as much these days, but healthy. Anybody know a PTSD doc for wrasses that survived there flight to the floor?
Hope the Assessor pulls through.

 

[Hyak2]

Seeing the videos, I think your assessor will be fine. It's absolutely banged up, but behaving about as one would expect for (what appears to be) a wild caught assessor in an acclimation tank.

This is just my opinion, but I think that as long as you don't have any fish that have a strong chance of beating it up, I would release it into the main tank within the next few days. At this point it's apparent this fish isn't on deaths doorstep and is honestly in fairly good body condition beyond the injuries, and being in the lower stress environment of the main tank will likely help with getting it eating and healing as it should! From some of the last videos you posted, a lot of that laying on its side appears to be stress, as opposed to injury, related.

 

[litsoh]

Definitely more active today, but still have not see it eat anything. So far I’ve tried chromaboost pellets, brine, and even daphnia

 

[litsoh]

The injury on the head is definitely concerning, but I haven’t seen any redness from it or any of the other marks on the body

 

[Nordy]

Pulling for the little guy, I love assessors/basslets. Next feed, brine up the water with your prepared food, maybe a drop of Selcon, maybe one or two small sinking pellets that may sit, but might interest later, and then a little well oxygenated Water change to follow up.

 

[litsoh]

@Jay Hemdal how long do you think I should wait before starting a copper qt for it? The last owner had him for over a year with no reported diseases and I’ve been looking for any telltale signs of ich or flukes but he’s been spotless so far. I would imagine *if* he was carrying ich or anything like that it would have shown itself while he was still recovering from the injuries.

I’m also hesitant on starting anything like copper while he’s still recovering, do you think I could get away with just an observational QT?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal how long do you think I should wait before starting a copper qt for it? The last owner had him for over a year with no reported diseases and I’ve been looking for any telltale signs of ich or flukes but he’s been spotless so far. I would imagine *if* he was carrying ich or anything like that it would have shown itself while he was still recovering from the injuries.

I’m also hesitant on starting anything like copper while he’s still recovering, do you think I could get away with just an observational QT?

I wouldn’t start any copper or prazi until you are certain the fish has resumed feeding.

What other fish are in the tank? I’m concerned that the assessor isn’t feeding because it’s uncomfortable being in the small holding tank. It might feed if let out into the main tank.

You may not need to give this fish a full quarantine. Unless the previous owner added some sick fish to their tank or something right before you got this fish, a year in captivity makes disease much less likely.

 

[litsoh]

@Jay Hemdal how long do you think I should wait before starting a copper qt for it? The last owner had him for over a year with no reported diseases and I’ve been looking for any telltale signs of ich or flukes but he’s been spotless so far. I would imagine *if* he was carrying ich or anything like that it would have shown itself while he was still recovering from the injuries.

I’m also hesitant on starting anything like copper while he’s still recovering, do you think I could get away with just an observational QT?

I wouldn’t start any copper or prazi until you are certain the fish has resumed feeding.

What other fish are in the tank? I’m concerned that the assessor isn’t feeding because it’s uncomfortable being in the small holding tank. It might feed if let out into the main tank.

You may not need to give this fish a full quarantine. Unless the previous owner added some sick fish to their tank or something right before you got this fish, a year in captivity makes disease much less likely.

It’s currently in an acclimation box within my 10 gallon holding/qt tank, no other inhabitants though. I was considering letting it out of the box into the 10 gallon but I wanted to be sure it was fully able to swim around and not get pushed around by the flow from my HOB and pump.

I’ll double check with the previous owner on if anything was added recently, but they are in the process of breaking down their tank so I’d like to think everything has been in there for a little while

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

It’s currently in an acclimation box within my 10 gallon holding/qt tank, no other inhabitants though. I was considering letting it out of the box into the 10 gallon but I wanted to be sure it was fully able to swim around and not get pushed around by the flow from my HOB and pump.

I’ll double check with the previous owner on if anything was added recently, but they are in the process of breaking down their tank so I’d like to think everything has been in there for a little while

For sure let it have the whole 10 gallon by itself (as long as it has a cover).

 

[litsoh]

It’s currently in an acclimation box within my 10 gallon holding/qt tank, no other inhabitants though. I was considering letting it out of the box into the 10 gallon but I wanted to be sure it was fully able to swim around and not get pushed around by the flow from my HOB and pump.

I’ll double check with the previous owner on if anything was added recently, but they are in the process of breaking down their tank so I’d like to think everything has been in there for a little while

For sure let it have the whole 10 gallon by itself (as long as it has a cover).

Previous owner says nothing new has been added to its previous tank since the assessor has been in there.

 

[litsoh]

Finally visually confirmed that it’s eating. Night and day difference to when I first got it. Actively swimming around the 10 gallon and it was eating frozen brine. Haven’t seen any spots on it or any other indicators of parasites so I’ll probably give it a couple days of feeding then move to the main tank

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Finally visually confirmed that it’s eating. Night and day difference to when I first got it. Actively swimming around the 10 gallon and it was eating frozen brine. Haven’t seen any spots on it or any other indicators of parasites so I’ll probably give it a couple days of feeding then move to the main tank

Unless there is a very compelling reason not to, I’d watch it for 14 days before moving it over.

 

[litsoh]

Finally visually confirmed that it’s eating. Night and day difference to when I first got it. Actively swimming around the 10 gallon and it was eating frozen brine. Haven’t seen any spots on it or any other indicators of parasites so I’ll probably give it a couple days of feeding then move to the main tank

Unless there is a very compelling reason not to, I’d watch it for 14 days before moving it over.

On the 4th it will have been 14 days since I got the assessor, do I go off of that timeline or is it 14 days since seeing it eat?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

On the 4th it will have been 14 days since I got the assessor, do I go off of that timeline or is it 14 days since seeing it eat?

No - I meant 14 days since the issue seemed to have resolved.

 

[litsoh]

Very glad to say that the little guy survived the ordeal and is now happily exploring the rockwork in my 125. Thanks @Jay Hemdal and everyone else for the help!