Wrasse curved spine

[Bent17]

Have noticed my wrasse has a curved spine and looking very thin.. i just fed live food and he was eating normally but bit worried. Should I do anything?

 

[i cant think]

Have noticed my wrasse has a curved spine and looking very thin.. i just fed live food and he was eating normally but bit worried. Should I do anything?

How does she swim? To me it looks like either UNWD or a Spinal Injury.

 

[Bent17]

Well tried to catch her she swam like extremely fast. Otherwise swims slowly an sometimes gradually drops to the sandbed

 

[Sixdinnersquid]

What you described is consistent with a situation that I had with a yellow coris wrasse a month back, following a several-day power and heat outage (in winter). The tank temp dropped significantly; soon after temperature recovery what appeared to be a fungal infection occurred; I treated the infection, seemingly successfully; arched back, sideways swimming, inability to hold position in water column soon after; disinterest in food, fish disappearance.

I'd had the wrasse for 3+ years prior to this, with no recent livestock additions.

How long have you had your wrasse? How large is it?

 

[i cant think]

Well tried to catch her she swam like extremely fast. Otherwise swims slowly an sometimes gradually drops to the sandbed

The first part isn’t usually a sign of a Spinal injury IME. Generally if they have spinal injuries the fish will swim in vertical circles and struggle to swim properly.
The second part is seen in both UNWD and Spinal injuries which is where they just lay on the bottom.
This makes me think you could have a case of UNWD which to my knowledge is incurable.

 

[Bent17]

What is inwd?

 

[Bent17]

What you described is consistent with a situation that I had with a yellow coris wrasse a month back, following a several-day power and heat outage (in winter). The tank temp dropped significantly; soon after temperature recovery what appeared to be a fungal infection occurred; I treated the infection, seemingly successfully; arched back, sideways swimming, inability to hold position in water column soon after; disinterest in food, fish disappearance.

I'd had the wrasse for 3+ years prior to this, with no recent livestock additions.

How long have you had your wrasse? How large is it?

Been a few weeks only. Power went twice last week but only dropped 0.5 degrees. Did yours end up dead?

 

[i cant think]

What is inwd?

UNWD is the Unknown Wrasse Disease, I believe I’m missing a letter and it’s abbreviation is actually UKNWD

 

[Bent17]

Oh so this is a common thing?

 

[i cant think]

Oh so this is a common thing?

It’s not known how common this issue is as it tends to be confused with Spinal injury and for a while we did believe this was just a Spinal Injury.
If this is only a new thing it could very well be a spinal injury but if this wrasse has had it since she was in the LFS, it’s likely to be UNWD.

 

[Bent17]

No it wasnt lile that and also seeing him slimmer

 

[nereefpat]

How is the fish swimming? Can you get a short video?

 

[Bent17]

Here you go

 

[Bent17]

Think he wont survive

 

[Sixdinnersquid]

Been a few weeks only. Power went twice last week but only dropped 0.5 degrees. Did yours end up dead?

That's the weird thing about coris wrasses, what with them burying themselves at night - the body isn't easy to find. But yeah, dead seems a safe assumption at this point.

 

[Bent17]

Update: I found the Wrasse under a rock non responsive so I had to end him unfortunately..

 

[i cant think]

Update: I found the Wrasse under a rock non responsive so I had to end him unfortunately..

He likely came out of the sand and died by the sounds of it, such a shame to hear you had to do that, it’s never easy getting rid of fish.

That's the weird thing about coris wrasses, what with them burying themselves at night - the body isn't easy to find. But yeah, dead seems a safe assumption at this point.

just wanted to say, your ‘Yellow Coris’ wasn’t a true Coris wrasse and is a species from Halichoeres. The Coris genus is a much more aggressive genus with species that grow between 1 and 4 feet generally.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry to hear. There wasn't anything you could have done though. The wrasse does look a bit thin, but this could have been UNWD, here is a link to a discussion I started on that issue:

Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease (UNWD)

Unknown Neurological Wrasse disease (UNWD) There is a disease that afflicts newly acquired wrasses, usually Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses or flasher wrasses, Pseudocheilinus, but occasionally other species as well. The gross visual symptoms are always the same; the fish shows a rapid onset of...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay