Carpenter wrasse lying on its side

[sfin52]

I have not treated it.

Is it still eating

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

How big is your tank
Have you seen any agression

my tank is 15 gallons. No agression so far.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

Is it still eating

yes

 

[sfin52]

my tank is 15 gallons. No agression so far.

Thats aweful small for a flasher. They are constantly swimming. I would watch the clown with thr wrasse in such a small tank. You may have agression with out you realizing it. I swear fish are like kids behaving when your around misbehaving when we are not.
Prob not internal parasite being two months in your tank and still eating

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

Thats aweful small for a flasher. They are constantly swimming. I would watch the clown with thr wrasse in such a small tank. You may have agression with out you realizing it. I swear fish are like kids behaving when your around misbehaving when we are not.
Prob not internal parasite being two months in your tank and still eating

oh sorry I meant 20 gallons. the wrasse is quite small.

 

[sfin52]

oh sorry I meant 20 gallons

I'm not saying you can't its really small. Have you seen any tattered fins.
it running for food and getting to the bottom of the tank sounds like agression issues

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

I'm not saying you can't its really small. Have you seen any tattered fins.
it running for food and getting to the bottom of the tank sounds like agression issues

no tattered fins.

 

[sfin52]

#reefsquad any thoughts.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

I have looked at the tank for awhile now, so far no agression.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

please help me identify what's happening. thanks for helping.

 

[PR_nano]

Monitor for aggression. I have a pink streaked wrasse that gets bully by a purple firefish especially near "his" cave. I seen the wrasse played dead and lay in his side on a few occasions. Recently got his right fin and tail bitten and laid on the sand for 2 straight days barely swimming. I had to place pellet on the sand bed for him to eat. He's back active swimming and picking at rocks and I moved some rocks around to reduce aggression. But I can tell he avoid swimming close to the firefish.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

Monitor for aggression. I have a pink streaked wrasse that gets bully by a purple firefish especially near "his" cave. I seen the wrasse played dead and lay in his side on a few occasions. Recently got his right fin and tail bitten and laid on the sand for 2 straight days barely swimming. I had to place pellet on the sand bed for him to eat. He's back active swimming and picking at rocks and I moved some rocks around to reduce aggression. But I can tell he avoid swimming close to the firefish.

thanks I will.

 

[sfin52]

thanks I will monitor for aggression

My suspect is the clown. They can become very territorial. In a small tank it can be even worse. Quick swimming up grabbing food and hitting thr deck is a sign of agression

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

when I turn on the tank lights the carpenter wrasse no longer is lying on his side and swims to the top of the tank but after awhile he goes back to lying on his side.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

been observing the tank for awhile now. no agression. carpenter wrasse still lying on its side.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Make sure when you watch the wrasse, that you do it from a darkened room, so the fish don't see you and change their behavior. As mentioned, this species doesn't need sand to sleep in, but they don't do really well in glass bottom tanks, so a dusting of sand, like you have helps block the reflections.

There is an issue with these wrasses, I've seen about 6 cases now - newish wrasse, still feeding, but lays on the bottom, sometimes on its side or even upside down. Normally, when a fish stops swimming normally, they also stop feeding, but in these cases, that doesn't happen. I do not know what causes this though. Since it is still feeding, one option might be to feed it General Cure in some Focus to get the meds internally, but that's just a guess.

Jay

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

Make sure when you watch the wrasse, that you do it from a darkened room, so the fish don't see you and change their behavior. As mentioned, this species doesn't need sand to sleep in, but they don't do really well in glass bottom tanks, so a dusting of sand, like you have helps block the reflections.

There is an issue with these wrasses, I've seen about 6 cases now - newish wrasse, still feeding, but lays on the bottom, sometimes on its side or even upside down. Normally, when a fish stops swimming normally, they also stop feeding, but in these cases, that doesn't happen. I do not know what causes this though. Since it is still feeding, one option might be to feed it General Cure in some Focus to get the meds internally, but that's just a guess.

Jay

Thanks for replying. It is still the same so far. It still eats but it is still on its side.

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

It eats everything I put in so far and hides in the live rock at night.

 

[Montagne]

@xavier08 do you have an update on your wrasse?

 

[freshwaterandmarine]

@xavier08 do you have an update on your wrasse?

Unfortunately, it didn't make it. I couldn't find it for more than 1 month and eventually took out both live rocks to check but there was nothing inside. I still don't know what happened and where it went.