Sick Pygmy Possum Wrasse

[TaliaShepard]

Hi all, 

 

Picked up a pygmy possum wrasse Friday before last at the LFS. He was eating mysis in the store. I have an IM Nuvo 10 gallon that has been up for two years and running fishless the past year. I read these guys are finicky and stress easily so I added him straight to the tank to avoid QT stress and there were no other fish in the system anyway. He did fine the first week, very shy, but came out of the rockwork slightly to grab the daily mysis I fed him with the pumps off. Last night I noticed him hovering by the return nozzle and being listless. I thought he was dead. He had stringy white poop and some pale/gray patches along his back near his dorsal fin (not ick, I know what that looks like and this looked more like his color is leached than something stuck to him). He would not eat last night and I didn't honestly think he'd last the night. 

 

He's still with us today. I went to the LFS and picked up some pods to put in the tank and some live brine shrimp. The owner also gave me a dose of Prazipro to add to the tank. I ordered seachem focus and metroplex to start treating him as well. That should be in this afternoon. He ate the brine shrimp or at the very least picked at them and I added the prazipro to the tank (the xenia is pi**ed off but the other corals look fine). 

 

Should I go ahead and soak mysis in the focus and metroplex today or wait for the prazipro to do its thing and then treat with the metroplex. I'd read it's safe to use these two meds together but I don't want to stress him out more than he already is. Currently, he alternates between hiding in his cave and being listless near the return nozzle. If he sees me near the tank he goes back to his cave so it's hard to get a really good look at him or pictures. 

 

I honestly don't think he's going to make it and either the parasite load is too high or whatever method they used to capture him has made him sick. He'd only been in the LFS for a few days when I picked him up so if they used cyanide then the aftereffects of that might be hitting him. The only positive I can see right now is he still wants to eat. I want to do everything I can for him. I hate to lose any fish but these guys are pretty rare locally and he was not cheap so that hurts even more. 

 

Any ideas or thoughts? 

 

Tank: 10 gallon IM Nuvo 

Light: AI Prime

Ammonia: 0 

Nitrite: 0 

Nitrate: 15-20 (i've been feeding pretty heavily to get him to eat) 

Livestock: Pygmy wrasse, astrea snails, blue legged hermits, 2 nassarius snails, various soft corals 

 

TIA for any help! It is appreciated! 

[DaJMasta]

I had one that showed similar patchyness on their side that lived for about a week until it passed away.  It had acted normal but then occasionally just laid in the bottom corner of the tank, but then when I went in to scoop it into a breeder box to keep it out of harm's way, it just got up and swam off as normal.

I get the impression they're prone to bacterial infections, and the splotchy discoloration on its side was some version of that, but as I didn't have the means to properly treat it on hand and was only suspecting it later on, I was unable to see.  Stringy poop is a sign of internal parasites, and should probably be treated in a small QT tank.  I'm not any expert on medicating, but the best resource I know of is humblefish's website, humble.fish , so that would be my go-to for diagnosis and treatment procedure.

That said, I've also kept two that were happy and healthy, so it could be that the initial collection/shipping stress and disease is the part they're not good with.  The one I have now (yellow banded possum wrasse) definitely prefers frozen foods, but will pick at the rockwork all day.  Pods are probably a good addition, but they will take food straight out of the water column, so if you aren't using some kind of meaty frozen food, I'd recommend trying that.

 

Good luck!

[jambon]

I had one in the past which took a few weeks to become acclimated/ comfortable in the new environment... I have read they do not ship well  which explains its condition. I would continue as you are and hope it pulls through it is alone which is good , so it wont be pestered by anything. btw... I fished mine out of the back compartment many times.. they jump. His last jump was not so fortunate🙄.

Also.. good luck 

[mcarroll]

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

Hi all, 

 

Picked up a pygmy possum wrasse Friday before last at the LFS. He was eating mysis in the store.

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

the daily mysis I fed him with the pumps off.

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

He had stringy white poop

Eating Mysid causes poos to look like that.   If you were feeding red pellets, his poo would be red/brown.

 

This is NOT a sure sign of any infection....although there's been a lot of effort promoting that erroneous idea over the years.  If you're feeding mysids, you have to discount the grey stringy poops.

 

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

Currently, he alternates between hiding in his cave and being listless near the return nozzle. If he sees me near the tank he goes back to his cave

To me this sounds relatively responsive.

 

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

I honestly don't think he's going to make it and either the parasite load is too high or whatever method they used to capture him has made him sick. He'd only been in the LFS for a few days when I picked him up so if they used cyanide then the aftereffects of that might be hitting him. The only positive I can see right now is he still wants to eat. I want to do everything I can for him. I hate to lose any fish but these guys are pretty rare locally and he was not cheap so that hurts even more. 

Eating is one of the only things that matter in terms of recovery – so this is an excellent sign!  If he's eating and you do nothing aside from keeping a healthy tank, statistically speaking he should have a 99% chance of recovery.

 

The only exception is if your theory of cyanide hold true.....and it's sadly somewhat likely on small, cryptic fish like this.  If you've ever tried to catch one out of a reef tank, then try to imagine catching one on a wild reef with infinite crevices.  Not easy at all!  It would be tempting as a collector (I suspect) to use a "crutch" for catching fish like these.

 

20 hours ago, TaliaShepard said:

Any ideas or thoughts? 

 

Tank: 10 gallon IM Nuvo 

Light: AI Prime

Ammonia: 0 

Nitrite: 0 

Nitrate: 15-20 (i've been feeding pretty heavily to get him to eat) 

Livestock: Pygmy wrasse, astrea snails, blue legged hermits, 2 nassarius snails, various soft corals 

 

TIA for any help! It is appreciated! 

Are phosphates similarly "elevated"?   (If so that's good....don't want imbalance and don't want 0.00 ppm.)

 

Any chance you can post a pic of the tank and the fish?

[TaliaShepard]

Thank you for the help everyone, I did not know that feeding mysids caused white poop! I will definitely keep that in mind in the future. Phosphates are slightly elevated using the ULR Hanna Checker so I don't think that is anything to worry about. He disappeared late last afternoon into the rockwork and would not come out for the evening feed even with live brine shrimp. I found him this morning at the back of the tank on his side. His coloration has continued to deteriorate with the gray/white patchiness along his back spread even further. I thought he was dead and went to remove him but he swam to the other corner and laid back down. He is not long for this world, if I had clove oil on hand I would go ahead and euthanize him. I'm currently out and need to pick more up. 

 

At this point, I suspect either he has too high of an internal parasite load and the stress of being captured and moved has crashed his immune system, he is suffering from some sort of bacterial infection that has likewise overwhelmed him, or he is suffering from cyanide poisoning. I'm really bummed, I don't know that I will try another of this species after this experience. 

 

Thank you again for your replies, they were very helpful. 

[DaJMasta]

That was similar behavior for mine before it passed, but there was still a day or two from seeing signs of lying on its side to when it actually died.  If you've got another vessel (even a 5G bucket) you can treat it in, I would do the water change but keep the old water, make sure there was aeration (sponge filter or similar) and a heater for the bucket of water, and try whatever meds you had on hand.  It's a last ditch effort, probably, but if a treatment sticks it would be a really welcome surprise.

[mcarroll]

29 minutes ago, TaliaShepard said:

he is suffering from cyanide poisoning. I'm really bummed, I don't know that I will try another of this species after this experience. 

 

Thank you again for your replies, they were very helpful. 

Sounds like things aren't going so well after all.  😞 

 

Did he stop or slow down feeding at some point?

 

[TaliaShepard]

On 1/11/2022 at 1:08 PM, mcarroll said:

Sounds like things aren't going so well after all.  😞 

 

Did he stop or slow down feeding at some point?

 

He stopped eating day before yesterday and yesterday was on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily. I haven't seen him today, I suspect he passed late yesterday or overnight and my clean-up crew disposed of the body. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Sorry for your loss. It really sucks when you lose a fishy friend.