Radiant wrasse

[Zachary Hart]

Hello everyone, I just had two wrasse delivered,  mcoskers flasher wrasse and a radiant wrasse. The mcoskers seems fine other than being a little shaken up from transport, however the Radient wrasse seems to have some large spots on his body ( 3 that I can see). My first instinct would be flukes, however I haven’t seen him scratching yet. I would appreciate your opinions and what to do. Thankd

[Humblefish]

It does sorta look like a monogenean (skin flukes).

 

However, you would need to give the fish a 5 min FW dip to confirm that: 

 

[Zachary Hart]

Ok I’ll give that a go tomorrow. Or should I wait a few days to let him settle in after being shipped overnight, and that way get a better sense of his symptoms aswell. Thanks I’ll keep you updated

[Tired]

I'm not the expert, but my impulse would be to diagnose the disease as soon as possible, so you can go ahead with treating it. Especially a disease that can get into the gills. You want to treat it before it starts doing serious harm to the fish. Both for the fish's health, and for its comfort. 

[Zachary Hart]

Ok just performed a 5 minute freshwater dip following the instructions you gave. However there does not appear to be any flukes present in the container, and the white patches still remain on him. Do you think maybe that it’s just missing scales? Because I also notice today his left fin looks to be roughed up and bitten and a bit, possibly from being bullied back at the shop. 
another thing I noticed today is that he is constantly swimming in the flow of the powerhead. Could this maybe instead gill flukes because I didn’t think that a freshwater dip shows whether gill flukes are present?

I will perform another freshwater dip in a couple of days just to double check 

[Zachary Hart]

The wrasse went to sit down in a flower pot right after the dip. Is this normal? I assume he is just recuperating 

[Zachary Hart]

He’s back up and swimming again

[Zachary Hart]

after having watched him for 20 minutes I now notice that he is flashing on the sand. This is on the side opposite to the 3 dots and instead on the side with the torn fin

[Humblefish]

@Zachary Hart It's possible that he's just trying to dive into the sand, but is confused by the tupperware container.

[jambon]

Just keep an eye on him.. is the fish eating well? Try not to stress it out too much . Keep the lights a bit low if you can.

[jmcdaniel0]

If you are really worried about him I recommend using some seachem paraguard.   it has worked great for me in the past.    Also, something I like to do for new fish, is to add Selcon to their food, so I know they are getting all of the nutrition they need.   Sometimes new fish are picky eaters, and the selcon is like a big vitaminadd in.

[Zachary Hart]

Hi thanks for your suggestions. Sadly I just got home tonight to see him lying dead on the sandbed. He had been buried for a couple of days I assumed Out of stress from shipping. I had already started dosing Paraguard as soon as I saw his torn fin in the liklihood that it was fin rot. However when I found him just now, whatever it was that was affecting him had completely eaten away at both fins leaving him without either. And no he was not eating enthusiastically when emerged from the sandbed. I wonder if this had something to do with the way he was shipped, because when I opened the box he was shipped in he was jumping out of the water in the bag like mad, possibly from a spike in ammonia. But anyway thank you all for your help and suggestions. Hopefully the flasher wrasse will survive. It seems to be doing okay so far no signs of disease and eating pellets well. 

[jmcdaniel0]

Dang man!   I hate to hear that.    I absolutely love wrasses and hate to see such a pretty one die.    Does the store you bought from have a guarantee?  I would give them a call and try to get it replaced, if so.

[Zachary Hart]

It was bought online from marineworld aquatics. My first time buying fish online so I’ll have to look into whether they came with a guarantee or not. 

[jmcdaniel0]

22 hours ago, Zachary Hart said:

It was bought online from marineworld aquatics. My first time buying fish online so I’ll have to look into whether they came with a guarantee or not. 

most online stores have a fish guarantee...  It varies a lot, so you may not get anything, but it is worth it. 

[Ratvan]

On 8/23/2022 at 4:46 PM, Zachary Hart said:

It was bought online from marineworld aquatics. My first time buying fish online so I’ll have to look into whether they came with a guarantee or not. 

Bradford? I think it's DOA only but do check

[Zachary Hart]

Yes the Bradford one. And you’re right just doa 

Very annoying though because whatever disease it had, they picked and sent it with it. 

[Ratvan]

I'm not the greatest fan of that shop but to be fair the fish are usually healthy, as it is a sand burrowing wrasse there is also the potential that cyanide could have been used in its capture. 

[jmcdaniel0]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

I'm not the greatest fan of that shop but to be fair the fish are usually healthy, as it is a sand burrowing wrasse there is also the potential that cyanide could have been used in its capture. 

you are correct,   I am not a fan of the methods they use to capture those.  

[Tamberav]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:43 PM, Zachary Hart said:

Hi thanks for your suggestions. Sadly I just got home tonight to see him lying dead on the sandbed. He had been buried for a couple of days I assumed Out of stress from shipping. I had already started dosing Paraguard as soon as I saw his torn fin in the liklihood that it was fin rot. However when I found him just now, whatever it was that was affecting him had completely eaten away at both fins leaving him without either. And no he was not eating enthusiastically when emerged from the sandbed. I wonder if this had something to do with the way he was shipped, because when I opened the box he was shipped in he was jumping out of the water in the bag like mad, possibly from a spike in ammonia. But anyway thank you all for your help and suggestions. Hopefully the flasher wrasse will survive. It seems to be doing okay so far no signs of disease and eating pellets well. 

 

radiant wrasses are poor shippers... they do not seem to handle shipping stress well. Some places list them as "expert only" because of the shipping issue, not because they are otherwise difficult. 

 

The missing fins though may be some sort of fast moving bacterial issue.

[Zachary Hart]

Ok well I won’t make that mistake again. The other fish is still doing great eating plenty of pellets and frozen with no signs of disease yet. Thankyou 

[mcarroll]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:43 PM, Zachary Hart said:

when I found him just now, whatever it was that was affecting him had completely eaten away at both fins leaving him without either

The fins would be among the first things to get eaten by cleanup crew or other fish in the tank.  IMO this is not a sign of what was the matter with the fish.

 

I agree with the assessment that these ought to be considered expert level fish, BTW.  I know almost nobody who has kept these alive for any respectable length of time....by which I mean 5-10-15 years.....old age.  Almost 100% that survive shipping end up jumping – sometimes though the most minute opening that isn't even big enough for them....yet they make it.  

 

Of course there are other issues besides jumping and shipping related ones....  E.g. Cyanide capture that was brought up earlier.  

 

Your fish appeared to be missing scales (or that's what I read, anyway...it was hard to make out enough detail in the photos) so that implies the fish may have experienced some physical trauma, possibly while being caught and moved while in your possession OR before.....net capture is actually pretty hard on fish (there are better ways)....and it's not that hard for "something" to happen during capture....like the fish getting caught in the net, or pinched between the net and tank while being chased, dropped, etc....

 

A bummer all the way around....but I would ask for a different fish in replacement.  Hopefully they will offer that option.  👍