Ornate leopard wrass problem??? Please help

[mrnicebug]

I’ve had this guy for almost a year now he’s perfectly fine. He disappears a lot of the time to go hide. I don’t know why. I woke up this morning, He was fine yesterday and now he looks like this. Eating and swimming???? Looks scales have been damaged?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’ve had this guy for almost a year now he’s perfectly fine. He disappears a lot of the time to go hide. I don’t know why. I woke up this morning, He was fine yesterday and now he looks like this. Eating and swimming???? Looks scales have been damaged?

Not certain what that is - it's mucus, but why that would develop out of the blue like that is tough to diagnose. The mouth area looks pretty bad - could it have gotten stuck in some rocks and then struggled to get away?

No new animals added to the tank in the past month?
Can you post a video under white lights?

At this point, I can't suggest any treatments......

 

[mrnicebug]

Not certain what that is - it's mucus, but why that would develop out of the blue like that is tough to diagnose. The mouth area looks pretty bad - could it have gotten stuck in some rocks and then struggled to get away?

No new animals added to the tank in the past month?
Can you post a video under white lights?

At this point, I can't suggest any treatments......

 

[mrnicebug]

Not certain what that is - it's mucus, but why that would develop out of the blue like that is tough to diagnose. The mouth area looks pretty bad - could it have gotten stuck in some rocks and then struggled to get away?

No new animals added to the tank in the past month?
Can you post a video under white lights?

At this point, I can't suggest any treatments......

 

[mrnicebug]

 

[mrnicebug]

No new fish, nothing new

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Wow - that’s really severe mucus.

I’m just not sure what’s going on here. It looks worse than in the photo, so I’m just not as sure about my injury hypothesis now.

Protozoans can cause skin mucus, but the way this looks and the rapid onset and no other fish affected tends to rule that out.

This could be bacterial, but the rapid onset is weird. Maybe it’s bacteria mixed with mucus?

 

[Blennioidei]

any update on the fish?

 

[mrnicebug]

He is still alive as of today. I thought he was dead since he remained hidden yesterday, fins are really tattered, still eating. Thinking he might have ran into one of the anemones I have in the tank. 2 long tentacles and a carpet? Maybe

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

He is still alive as of today. I thought he was dead since he remained hidden yesterday, fins are really tattered, still eating. Thinking he might have ran into one of the anemones I have in the tank. 2 long tentacles and a carpet? Maybe

Can you isolate it in an acclimation chamber, or better, a tank divider?

 

[mrnicebug]

I’ve tried to catch him. It’s a 180 reef tank

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’m just worried that the ripped fins indicate some on-going damage from some tankmate in the tank. How wide is the internal dimension of the tank? You could try to make a tank divider out of egg crate, then you could trap it off to one side and not need to actually catch it in a net.
The other option is to just watch it I guess.