Sick dragon wrasses fish on side

Reginarose · Jul 19, 2019

Hi, I’m brand new to this group & looking for help for our dragon wrasses fish. I started a salt water tank for my father with help from a few others since he is 78 & wanted something to challenge him & keep him busy since he is in 1st stages of dementia. Long story short, it’s gone really well since he has had fresh water tanks for years & we have been building the tank now for 3 months & checking with fish store in different levels. All fish & soft coral have seemed happy until the last 2 days.

The dragon wrasses fish who was very active & playful around the tank for 2 weeks is now laying on his side.

I started reading posts here & did an emergency fresh water dip for 5 minutes as suggested with helping another dragon wrasses fish and he seemed to react to it swimming in container, laying back down, swimming. After the 5 minutes I put him back in tank & Im looking to see what to do next & planning to go to fish store after they open for help.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m clueless. About to call my fathers house to give him bad news/update.

Reginarose · Jul 19, 2019

The pics of him are with paper towel under container so you can see him better as the poor thing laid on his side. and I found this picture from a few days ago when he stemmed very happy. Wondering if he ate something bad like the bunch of small brine shrimps my Dad put in tank. He seemed to love them.

LesPoissons · Jul 19, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Looks like a cool tank. What are your quarentine proceedures? What are your water parameters? He may have internal parasites. Do you have a bucket or a hospital tank set up? Additionally, (just an fyi) your tank looks like a 55gallon or smaller from the pics. These fish get to be a foot long, need 180-200G, and will eat anything smaller than them (including shrimp or crabs). If your fish dies, I would not replace it.

Mjrenz · Jul 19, 2019

Welcome to the forum! Did you see anything that looked like little sesame seeds in the bottom of the container you did the freshwater dip in?

jsvand5 · Jul 19, 2019

Tough to see well in the pics but it’s stomach seems to be very sunken in. I would bet on internal parasites. If it will still accept food you could try giving it food with wormer added. If it’s no longer eating there is likely nothing that you will be able to do to save it.

reef r madness · Jul 19, 2019

Welcome to r2r...

Katrina71 · Jul 19, 2019

Poor baby.

reef r madness · Jul 19, 2019

How long has the tank been set up

Stuartmercer · Jul 19, 2019

Poor dude. Add a wormer to his diet could be a parasite taking his nutrients. Just a heads up, that dragon wrasse is going to get really ugly when It hits maturity. Right now it's a baby.

Reginarose · Jul 19, 2019

Maya Ybry-Yagy said:
Welcome to R2R! Looks like a cool tank. What are your quarentine proceedures? What are your water parameters? He may have internal parasites. Do you have a bucket or a hospital tank set up? Additionally, (just an fyi) your tank looks like a 55gallon or smaller from the pics. These fish get to be a foot long, need 180-200G, and will eat anything smaller than them (including shrimp or crabs). If your fish dies, I would not replace it.

Great questions. The fish store thinks 1. it’s too warm in the water. It’s sometimes above 80 up to 84. We put a fan in the room to try to help & lowered ac & adjusted heater temperature. They recommended staying under 80. And suggested more water circulation.

Keesers · Jul 19, 2019

Hello there, Welcome to the Group. I would suggest getting the temp down even to 79 if you could that may help if its spiking up and down thoughout the day if you can stabilize that may help. I will attach the quick stats from LA. Just Incase as others said you may have to Rehome it later cause they can get big and not usually for reef tanks. But again every fish is different and may never touch anything. What are you other water perimeters. Ammonia? Is fish breathing hard? Anything else you can tell us about the tank.? Again Welcome

Reginarose · Jul 22, 2019

Maya Ybry-Yagy said:
Welcome to R2R! Looks like a cool tank. What are your quarentine proceedures? What are your water parameters? He may have internal parasites. Do you have a bucket or a hospital tank set up? Additionally, (just an fyi) your tank looks like a 55gallon or smaller from the pics. These fish get to be a foot long, need 180-200G, and will eat anything smaller than them (including shrimp or crabs). If your fish dies, I would not replace it.

Great questions. The fish store thinks 1. it’s too warm in the water. It’s sometimes above 80 up to 84. We put a fan in the room to try to help & lowered ac & adjusted heater temperature. They recommended staying under 80. And suggested more water circulation.

Mjrenz said:
Welcome to the forum! Did you see anything that looked like little sesame seeds in the bottom of the container you did the freshwater dip in?

no nothing at all. I’m thinking it was interval with stuff he ate. He ate all those little shrimp & a couple of snails. And he survived until yesterday ☹ The pick of the white background was the fresh water, clear container on top of a paper towel, so we could see his coloring & anything better. He seemed to be reacting a little where he actually tried to swim some & laid back town. He did that at least 3 times while he was in freshwater bath.

Mjrenz · Jul 22, 2019

Reginarose said:
Great questions. The fish store thinks 1. it’s too warm in the water. It’s sometimes above 80 up to 84. We put a fan in the room to try to help & lowered ac & adjusted heater temperature. They recommended staying under 80. And suggested more water circulation.

no nothing at all. I’m thinking it was interval with stuff he ate. He ate all those little shrimp & a couple of snails. And he survived until yesterday ☹ The pick of the white background was the fresh water, clear container on top of a paper towel, so we could see his coloring & anything better. He seemed to be reacting a little where he actually tried to swim some & laid back town. He did that at least 3 times while he was in freshwater bath.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost him

BestMomEver · Jul 22, 2019

Me too.... I wish things had gone differently for him. But, alas, it is what it is.

The good news is you've found a great sight with some really knowledgable folks. We even have folks that specialize in certain things. No question is stupid. We'll do the best we can to help. One thing you'll find, however, is a group of folks that don't like to see fish living in an environment not suitable for them. I'm pretty sure @Maya Ybry-Yagy is one of those folks. We call them the "tang police." For the most part they're good folks. After all, I am almost a member.

Point is, sometimes they get too passionate which causes them to get all hot and bothered. My advice.....Read everything you can find about a species before you buy it. Ask questions because sometimes what you read can be misleading. Personal experience counts for a lot. I'm sorry you lost your fish but glad you joined us!

Welcome to the reef!