Melanurus Wrasse and Marine Velvet

Scubafrog

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I have a male melanurus wrasse that I purchased from a LFS on 5/25/21. I added it to my Reefer 350 that had six other fish and all seemed well. The wrasse got along with all of the other fish, ate frozen food well, physically appeared fine, and swam normal.

About 2-3 weeks later I noticed my other fish starting to look bad and appeared to have marine velvet (many tiny white powdery specks) and breathing heavy, mouth gaped open. My yellow eye kole tang was first to die (approx. 6/21/21) followed by my flame angel, two large bangaii cardinalfish, and finally my ocellaris clownfish couple that I have had for almost 7 years. The clowns were the last survivors and died on 6/30/21.

All fish were healthy and well established so that is why I'm siding on the side of velvet instead of ich.

The melanurus wrasse is the sole survivor and still appears normal and is eating fine. No heavy breathing, physical flaws, or swimming issues. At night it sleeps in the sand and is out swimming every day. The only concern I have is his abdomen will look swollen at times but that goes away.

My issue now is I really want to let the aquarium go fallow for several months before introducing new fish but I have no idea what to do with the wrasse. I would give it away free to anyone that wants to medicated it but I can't seem to find any takers. I really don't want to euthanize it as it is a very pretty and alert fish. I do not have the room to set up another aquarium to put the wrasse in. I do have a 20G cube but it has two clownfish, BTA's, and corals.

This was a very hard blow to lose all my well establish fish that all got along, were healthy, and that I had for years.

Lesson learned, first loses in almost 7 years, but I don't think a simple quarantine that I would have performed would of caught the issue as the wrasse still appears fine after two months and shows no signs of being sick.
 
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Scubafrog

Scubafrog

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If I leave the wrasse in the aquarium how will I know when I can introduce new fish?

I'm afraid of the wrasse being a host and keeping the parasites alive.
 

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