Naoko’s wrasse struggling

[bjsreefer]

Hey all-

I got a naoko’s wrasse a week ago. It was totally fine and happy, nothing bothering it, eating fine when I noticed yesterday it was getting pulled into the gyro and hitting anemones and rock and struggling. I put him in an isolation box to get him out of current and protected. He is breathing fine, but will alternate between swimming at the surface getting air above it and lying upside down in the bottom of the box. the weird thing is I’m feeding him selcon soaked mysis… as soon as I do he flips upright and gobbles everything up he can get. Anything else I can do to help?
View attachment 20251027_122227_1AC7ED04-C6DA-4C5C-9979-525F0ECDD567.mov

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey all-

I got a naoko’s wrasse a week ago. It was totally fine and happy, nothing bothering it, eating fine when I noticed yesterday it was getting pulled into the gyro and hitting anemones and rock and struggling. I put him in an isolation box to get him out of current and protected. He is breathing fine, but will alternate between swimming at the surface getting air above it and lying upside down in the bottom of the box. the weird thing is I’m feeding him selcon soaked mysis… as soon as I do he flips upright and gobbles everything up he can get. Anything else I can do to help?

Hi, that's a very clear case of what I term, "Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease" or UNWD. The cause isn't known, and there is no cure. Most people think that this is caused by the fish injuring itself by running into something. I disagree with that assumption because there is never any sign of physical trauma and we never see this except in certain species of wrasse. I think it is some disease of the nervous system - bacterial or viral perhaps.

A public aquarium had a recent case and they are sending samples out for histopathology, so hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.

Here is a post that I started about this syndrome:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

 

[bjsreefer]

Hey all-

I got a naoko’s wrasse a week ago. It was totally fine and happy, nothing bothering it, eating fine when I noticed yesterday it was getting pulled into the gyro and hitting anemones and rock and struggling. I put him in an isolation box to get him out of current and protected. He is breathing fine, but will alternate between swimming at the surface getting air above it and lying upside down in the bottom of the box. the weird thing is I’m feeding him selcon soaked mysis… as soon as I do he flips upright and gobbles everything up he can get. Anything else I can do to help?

Hi, that's a very clear case of what I term, "Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease" or UNWD. The cause isn't known, and there is no cure. Most people think that this is caused by the fish injuring itself by running into something. I disagree with that assumption because there is never any sign of physical trauma and we never see this except in certain species of wrasse. I think it is some disease of the nervous system - bacterial or viral perhaps.

A public aquarium had a recent case and they are sending samples out for histopathology, so hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this.

Here is a post that I started about this syndrome:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

So is it just going to waste away until it dies? It progressively gets worse until he can’t swim anymore at all?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So is it just going to waste away until it dies? It progressively gets worse until he can’t swim anymore at

Generally, these fish stay fairly stable. Some do stop eating and then waste away. I still haven’t had a confirmed report of one of these cases getting better. We euthanize them after about a week.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-euthanasia.979258/