McCoskers Wrasse Help

Cincyreefer513 · Sep 16, 2022

I've had this McCoskers wrasse for 5 months now. He's always been super healthy and active and was quarantined and treated prior to me receiving him.
Last night I finished up a 72hr blackout of my tank. When I opened everything up, the 2 clowns and royal gramma were swimming around and ready to eat. The wrasse was wedged in a rock which is typical for sleeping especially being dark and 10pm He was alive, but wouldn't come out to eat. Fast forward to 45 minutes ago when I got home from work and he's wedged head first in a rock sideways. It looked odd so I gently moved a rock to see if he was even alive. He is, but swam in circles upsidedown and very erratically. He hid again. I got a net and breeder box, caught him and noticed what appears to be a small scale patch that is loose. He's bent, but can straighten on his own. Breathing is normal. No other visible signs. He's unable to keep upright.

Is he save able or a lost cause? Spinal injury? UNWD? Something else?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 16, 2022

I've only seen true UNWD in newly imported fish. They also don't have lesions like this, their skin is clear. I think this is likely some physical trauma. Perhaps it was disoriented with the lights being out that long? Another idea may be that during a prolonged dark period, the algae goes into heavy reverse phase photosynthesis - producing carbon dioxide. If you tank didn't have really good aeration (not just circulation) the CO2 could have built up, depressing the pH, maybe that caused the fish to panic and run into a tight cave?

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Sep 16, 2022

The fins are shredded i lower photo and suggesting this fish was exposed to either aggression or previous bacterial issue from water quality

TheReefDiary · Sep 16, 2022

He looks like he should be put out of his misery. I literally woke up to a similar situation with my firefish the other day. Unfortunately I had to kill him because he was struggling a ton.

Cincyreefer513 · Sep 16, 2022

Thanks for the replies guys! Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's anything I can do.

The carbon dioxide theory I suppose is plausible. I tilted one power head up right at the surface and left a slit open for some air flow, but maybe it wasn't enough? I checked through a small hole with a red light each night to make sure the clowns were still alive since they don't hide. They're probably more durable though.

There is some aggression towards him from both the clowns and the RG. Going 3 days without food probably didn't help as I've noticed more aggressive behavior from them with even one day without food.

My theory was my kids were in the room the other day jumping around. If they startled him and he couldn't see, he may have injured himself.

It's unfortunate as I can't seem to find these fish anywhere around me so I likely won't be getting another anytime soon.