Sick Pintail Wrasse - Need Help

[jplace003]

My pintail wrasse that I’ve had for about 2 months started swimming erratically last night, then this morning he couldn’t swim straight or upright, at first I thought it could be a swim-bladder issue; however, tonight he is doing much worse and his skin is not looking good. I think he may have parasites or something. Can anyone provide any insight or feedback on diagnosis and treatment? I just took him out of my display tank and I’ve got him QT’d now, I don’t think he will make it much longer with how fast this came on.

Tank is established and parameters are good.
salt is 1.024, temp is 79.5

 

[seanmcknew]

Can't see anything.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My pintail wrasse that I’ve had for about 2 months started swimming erratically last night, then this morning he couldn’t swim straight or upright, at first I thought it could be a swim-bladder issue; however, tonight he is doing much worse and his skin is not looking good. I think he may have parasites or something. Can anyone provide any insight or feedback on diagnosis and treatment? I just took him out of my display tank and I’ve got him QT’d now, I don’t think he will make it much longer with how fast this came on.

Tank is established and parameters are good.
salt is 1.024, temp is 79.5

Hello,

We see a growing number of wrasse with this issue. It is a neurological disease, but the cause is unknown. Sorry, but there isn't a known treatment for this.

Some people think it is caused by collection of these fish with sodium cyanide, but in the cases I've seen, it doesn't start up until the fish has been in captivity for weeks to months, and in some cases, the fish still feeds normally. I think it is probably an internal infection that reaches the brain and that causes the spinning or swimming in circles.

Jay

 

[jplace003]

Can't see anything.

You should be able to download the video and view, for some reason it doesn't show up on the in browser player.

 

[jplace003]

Hello,

We see a growing number of wrasse with this issue. It is a neurological disease, but the cause is unknown. Sorry, but there isn't a known treatment for this.

Some people think it is caused by collection of these fish with sodium cyanide, but in the cases I've seen, it doesn't start up until the fish has been in captivity for weeks to months, and in some cases, the fish still feeds normally. I think it is probably an internal infection that reaches the brain and that causes the spinning or swimming in circles.

Jay

Jay,

Thank you for the insight, I would have to agree with this theory, I owned him for about 6 weeks and he was only at the LFS for 1 week before I got him. From the time of this post, he lived all the way up to this afternoon, never showing signs of improvement and only a slight decline from where he started on day 1, I had him in his own tank and treated him with GC as a precaution. When I would place food in the tank, I noticed he would try to get the food but his inability to swim in the right direction and or keep himself upright, made it near impossible to actually eat. I do not think it was a swimming bladder issue. I am taking a calculated guess in saying it was either a neurological disease or spinal injury. He was by far my favorite fish, total bummer!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Jay,

Thank you for the insight, I would have to agree with this theory, I owned him for about 6 weeks and he was only at the LFS for 1 week before I got him. From the time of this post, he lived all the way up to this afternoon, never showing signs of improvement and only a slight decline from where he started on day 1, I had him in his own tank and treated him with GC as a precaution. When I would place food in the tank, I noticed he would try to get the food but his inability to swim in the right direction and or keep himself upright, made it near impossible to actually eat. I do not think it was a swimming bladder issue. I am taking a calculated guess in saying it was either a neurological disease or spinal injury. He was by far my favorite fish, total bummer!

I saw a new idea today - maybe these wrasse are getting spinal injuries from crashing into something in the tank? The only reason I shy away from that idea is that so far, none of the wrasse I’ve seen have damaged snouts, and I would expect to see that.
Jay

 

[KGV]

This looks similar to what I experience with a Lubbock fairy wrasse. In my case, I am pretty sure he wasn't using his dorsal fin anymore. And overall, I would agree that neurological damage resulting in loss of motor skills is a likely scenario.

To follow @Jay Hemdal hypothesis, I also thought that the may be spinal cord damage. But I thought that my fairy wrasse had crashed during feeding. I try to avoid feeding in a single spot now because all fish speed to the food and it can get pretty wild. It's too fast to see by eye, but I guess they can crash in the feeding frenzy.

Not sure why, but it may be that these wrasses are sensitive to spinal injury.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

While the physical damage idea certainly has some merit, there are other issues that can cause neurological issues, but none of them are really identifiable without laboratory work - notably odd viral issues as well as weird internal protozoans such as microsporidians. Even internal bacterial infections can cause nervous system damage.

Jay

 

[KGV]

@Jay Hemdal It may be worth mentioning that in my case the symptoms started subtle and got worse over the course of a week. Maybe spinal damage does not fit with that, but rather an infection.

 

[zalick]

I have a McCoskers that started exhibiting symptoms today. All fins and eyes move but it appears blind out of right eye. Swims kind of corkscrew like and only eats food it sees to its left. Very stroke like.

@Jay Hemdal have you seen any of these fish recover?

 

[ChiCity]

Not sure why, but it may be that these wrasses are sensitive to spinal injury.

all vertebrates are sensitive to spinal injuries, lol