Skinny Wrasse

[PDR]

Hey everybody,

 

I'm starting to get concerned about my carpenters wrasse. I purchased him from divers den almost a month ago and over the last couple of weeks I noticed that he has started to look thin and is not as active as usual. He eats during feeding but never seems to eat much and spits out a lot of food 3-4x before eating some. I feed my tank 1x a day and have been trying to feed 2x a day. I feed mainly reef frenzy with some pellets now and then.

 

I really don't want to lose him, any ideas on what else I can try?

 

Also parameters are 0 am, 0 ni, 0 na. All other fish (helfrichi firefish and pair of pink bar gobies) are all eating well and show no issues.

 

Thanks

[lobster876]

It could be an internal parisite

[Moulton712]

The wrasse could have a blockage. 100% meaty foods is not good.

[PDR]

It could be an internal parisite

 

I don't think it is. When my fish in the past have had an internal parasite they would eat fine but get skinny regardless. The wrasse simply isn't eating enough imo. I tried feeding mysis and brine with good success. He seemed to really like the mysis. I will keep feeding him that combo and see if he starts to bulk up.

 

 

The wrasse could have a blockage. 100% meaty foods is not good.

 

I've never heard that meaty foods is not good for a fish with a carnivore diet.

[PDR]

So I have tried feeding a combination of over 6 kinds of food over the past week and while he is eating more he hasn't gained any weight at all that I can tell. He still seems fairly energetic but Im still worried. I did feed medicated food (pellets soaked in garlic guard with focus and metro) for several days. I stopped because it seemed to be bothering the firefish and pink bar gobies. His poo now looks like a solid white thread, not exactly the stringy mucus type I've seen in my other sick fish.

 

So what do you recommend at this point? Ive been holding out on using prazipro, but at this point I'm thinking it may be worms of some kind. Should I go ahead and use it?

 

Thanks

[PDR]

I started treating with prazipro 2 days ago and today he had this white worm looking thing that looked like it was coming out of his head. He ate great today but was resting in his sleeping spot throughout the day. I hope that means its working.

[PDR]

Well the wrasse didn't make it. Found him dead this morning.

[smeagol108]

That sucks. Sorry to hear. Sometimes things just happen with fish that are out of our control or understanding. You did your best for this guy.

[ajmckay]

Hi PDR - almost the exact same thing happened to my solar wrasse...

 

Once he got acclimated he ate phenomenally - though he obviously had flukes. Treated the whole tank with prazi (new tank not much in it) 2 treatments a week each with a week or 2 in-between. This was within a month from when I got it.

 

Fast forward 3-4 months-

I hadn't noticed any more flukes since the 2nd prazi treatment (almost impossible to see though) but I did begin to notice the white stringy poo and suddenly it wasn't eating.

 

No additions to the tank at all so I'm not exactly sure what happened. I treated the food with focus binded metronidazole and garlic juice and he ate some but then spit it out (did that with normal untreated food as well). I did that a few times and it seems that it was eating less and less so I made the decision to QT and treat with prazi + metro. Treated for 3 days - and the entire time the fish was just chillin under a rock - didn't eat that I could tell but seemed alert and would occasionally switch which rock it was under.

 

Moved back to display and hovered at the bottom extremely weak (like half on it's side) for about 3 days and then died.

 

All signs point to an internal parasite that was resistant to prazi & metro (unexpected) - or my treatment was just too late. The fish behaved normally up until the point it stopped eating at which point it wasted away over about 2 weeks.

[PDR]

Hi PDR - almost the exact same thing happened to my solar wrasse...

 

Once he got acclimated he ate phenomenally - though he obviously had flukes. Treated the whole tank with prazi (new tank not much in it) 2 treatments a week each with a week or 2 in-between. This was within a month from when I got it.

 

Fast forward 3-4 months-

I hadn't noticed any more flukes since the 2nd prazi treatment (almost impossible to see though) but I did begin to notice the white stringy poo and suddenly it wasn't eating.

 

No additions to the tank at all so I'm not exactly sure what happened. I treated the food with focus binded metronidazole and garlic juice and he ate some but then spit it out (did that with normal untreated food as well). I did that a few times and it seems that it was eating less and less so I made the decision to QT and treat with prazi + metro. Treated for 3 days - and the entire time the fish was just chillin under a rock - didn't eat that I could tell but seemed alert and would occasionally switch which rock it was under.

 

Moved back to display and hovered at the bottom extremely weak (like half on it's side) for about 3 days and then died.

 

All signs point to an internal parasite that was resistant to prazi & metro (unexpected) - or my treatment was just too late. The fish behaved normally up until the point it stopped eating at which point it wasted away over about 2 weeks.

At least I know I'm not alone...it really sucks though...never thought I would get upset over a fish, but I guess when you put so much time and effort into trying to save it, it just sucks when it doesn't work out.

[PDR]

So I want to give major props to live aquaria. I emailed them yesterday explaining what happened and they refunded me the full cost of the fish! And yesterday was 30 days AFTER the 14 day guarantee ran out. I was not seeking (or expecting) any refund. I will definitely be doing business with them again.