Melanurus wrasse hiding for weeks finally found.

[MammothWombat]

Hello,
My melanurus wrasse have been hiding for weeks, I just found it to but it seems weak, breathing heavily, have puffy (almost cloudy) eyes, and I feel it is struggling to bury itself (maybe the substrate is too dense), I am using caribsea dry sand.

I moved it to a breeder box with some sand and a pvc pipe. Is something wrong with it and what should I do next?

Update: After further inspection, it has one puffy blue eye, and one not-puffy cloudy eye.
Thanks,

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

How do the other fish in the tank look?
I wonder if it was buried because it was stressed/sick and now has gotten so ill that it has come up out of the sand to die. How difficult was it to catch? If it was really easy, then the fish is likely on its way out.
You might consider trying a 5 minute freshwater dip, n case it is flukes, but if it is really weak, it won’t likely survive either way.
Jay

 

[MammothWombat]

How do the other fish in the tank look?
I wonder if it was buried because it was stressed/sick and now has gotten so ill that it has come up out of the sand to die. How difficult was it to catch? If it was really easy, then the fish is likely on its way out.
You might consider trying a 5 minute freshwater dip, n case it is flukes, but if it is really weak, it won’t likely survive either way.
Jay

The other fish look fine. It was very easy to catch.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I would try the dip, at least for diagnostic reasons.
Jay

 

[Randallh99]

Melanurus wrasses are known to dart around and slam their faces into rocks causing bulging eyes. It's scary at first but usually subsides over a few days. I have one now that has done that on two different occassions in the 2 years that I've had him. Cloudy eyes would be a problem.