Pintail Wrasse suddenly dying?

[tombudster]

Hello all!

I just woke up this morning to find my problem Pintail Wrasse sort of flopping around, lying on his side, and unable to really swim. He's a problem because he loves to jump.

I don't know what could have caused this as last night he was totally fine, was eating totally normally, and didn't exhibit any issues. This morning I couldn't find him and when he did pop out, he was just sort of "flopping" around, trying to swim, and unable to. It sort of looks like he was attacked by something, but there's nothing in my tank that would have attacked him out of nowhere.

He's currently laying on his side on the bottom of the tank, still breathing, but labored.

I attached some pictures, but here's a video -

EDIT: During the writing of this post I think he finally did succumb to his issues :(

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello all!

I just woke up this morning to find my problem Pintail Wrasse sort of flopping around, lying on his side, and unable to really swim. He's a problem because he loves to jump.

I don't know what could have caused this as last night he was totally fine, was eating totally normally, and didn't exhibit any issues. This morning I couldn't find him and when he did pop out, he was just sort of "flopping" around, trying to swim, and unable to. It sort of looks like he was attacked by something, but there's nothing in my tank that would have attacked him out of nowhere.

He's currently laying on his side on the bottom of the tank, still breathing, but labored.

I attached some pictures, but here's a video -

EDIT: During the writing of this post I think he finally did succumb to his issues :(

Sorry to hear that it passed.

That does sound like a strike injury.... I couldn't view the video because it kept asking me to sign in to YouTube, but I was already signed in....

Edit: I was able to view the video after a couple of tries. There is a light white mark on its head, in front of the dorsal fin, looks like a mark from running into something.....

 

[tombudster]

Sorry to hear that it passed.

That does sound like a strike injury.... I couldn't view the video because it kept asking me to sign in to YouTube, but I was already signed in....

Edit: I was able to view the video after a couple of tries. There is a light white mark on its head, in front of the dorsal fin, looks like a mark from running into something.....

He's only been in the DT for a week and I've had to fish him out of the overflow twice. I did finally get netting over the overflow and the back of the tank, but I guess if I'm going to retry this I should get a net to go over the actual tank instead.

That light white mark on it's head behind the eyes is exactly what I noticed too. I thought maybe he got nipped at by the Naoko's I have in the tank, but it also doesn't really look like that and they've never had any aggression and actually usually hang out near each other. Crazy to think he took himself out the brutal way.

Thank you so much for your input here as usual!

 

[tombudster]

@Jay Hemdal

Here is a better picture of his back. Whatever happened to him really scraped that off.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal

Here is a better picture of his back. Whatever happened to him really scraped that off.

There is also UNWD, but that presents itself a little differently than in this case.

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

 

[DaJMasta]

They are quick-to-dart sort of fish and my mind went to bumping into something too. How long had you had it? What other tankmates? How old is the tank? How often are you feeding?

While they get marked as difficult to care for fish, in my experience they're not a lot tougher than other wrasses, but if they are being bullied or spooked regularly then the likelihood of running into something goes up a lot. If new to the tank, this is probably multiplied, and they are very active so at least daily feeding will be required.

 

[tombudster]

They are quick-to-dart sort of fish and my mind went to bumping into something too. How long had you had it? What other tankmates? How old is the tank? How often are you feeding?

While they get marked as difficult to care for fish, in my experience they're not a lot tougher than other wrasses, but if they are being bullied or spooked regularly then the likelihood of running into something goes up a lot. If new to the tank, this is probably multiplied, and they are very active so at least daily feeding will be required.

I have actually only had this guy a little over a week. It's in my relatively newer tank, and all of my parameters have been fine and in check with what they should be. No ammonia, low nitrate and phos, no nitrite, and 1.025 salinity. I feed the tank twice a day with either Mermaid's Delight, frozen mysis, or TDO Chroma/Nyos Goji pellets.

There's not much in the tank yet still either, 2 existing clowns I moved over from another tank, a yellow tang, and the Naoko's Wrasse.

I have not seen the pintail get spooked almost ever, and he was relatively chill and super relaxed except for his recent 3 day stint of jumping into the overflow. He and the other fish all actually hung out in a big group 90% of the day and were all super happy together and nobody else has signs of aggression or nipped fins or anything.

To rule out injury when fishing him out of the overflow, I also never used nets and instead used the inverse water bottle seeded with mysis to trap him inside, and then I lifted him out and released him back into the tank.

 

[DaJMasta]

With a similar body plan wrasse and a tang, and in the first week of introduction, it really points me towards aggression (even light) leading to running into something in panic.

The fact that he went into the overflow means it likely had happened then - and bumping on things as an injury can happen from running into a top as well when trying to jump.

Being a new tank with just rockwork means there are fewer places to hide and less "territory" for most fish, but it doesn't sound like it was a direct cause, it also sounds like plenty of food to me.

 

[tombudster]

With a similar body plan wrasse and a tang, and in the first week of introduction, it really points me towards aggression (even light) leading to running into something in panic.

The fact that he went into the overflow means it likely had happened then - and bumping on things as an injury can happen from running into a top as well when trying to jump.

Being a new tank with just rockwork means there are fewer places to hide and less "territory" for most fish, but it doesn't sound like it was a direct cause, it also sounds like plenty of food to me.

The first time he went into the overflow I actually watched him leap out of nowhere into the thing. It was insane. The second time, a day later, I did not see what happened so I can't really say. He was also fine after the jumps and I didn't notice anything on him like I did today. Now that I'm thinking of it, last night I was hearing some weird noises coming from the tank, but it being 2 AM I thought I was just losing my mind and hearing house noises... maybe he was throwing himself out of the tank and hitting the top.

Is it possible he also scratched himself up more when he was struggling towards the end?

I also added some coral yesterday, which I dunked. I thoroughly rinsed all of the corals off post dip with fresh saltwater, but I'm sure that is much more coincidental than anything.