Choats Wrass - Tail Missing

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

Hey everyone so o had this stunning choats wrasse in quarantine (TTM) and on the last transfer he was impossible to catch - tried to do it in the least stressful way but he was flapping around everywhere and jumping. Anyway after catching him and moving to the final tank the flesh near his tail went dark red (assumes some internal bleeding from damage) and then he lost half his tail. After I move him into the display he buried and has only come out maybe an hour or so a day and hangs around the sand bed.
He’s still looking quite fat but not sure if he is getting much to eat, I have plenty of pods for him to graze on but haven’t seen too much rock picking at this point.

Other than the tail he seems to be swimming okay considering and there is no other issues on him I can see.

what do you think the chances of survival are here?

ScubaFish802 · Nov 2, 2020

In some of the photos it appears red around that area? But I can't tell if that's the fish or lighting etc . . let me tag @Jay Hemdal to take a look maybe

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

Here’s a better video ... ignore the background noise just my daughter watching random YouTube videos

crayonbreaker · Nov 2, 2020

I had this happen to mine as well. Following along to see what it might be.

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

802ScubaFish said:
In some of the photos it appears red around that area? But I can't tell if that's the fish or lighting etc . . let me tag @Jay Hemdal to take a look maybe

Just posted another video which may help but it doesn’t look red really just a little bit inside the wound.

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

crayonbreaker said:
I had this happen to mine as well. Following along to see what it might be.

Dare I ask what happened? Haha

crayonbreaker · Nov 2, 2020

Mine did not make it.

crayonbreaker · Nov 2, 2020

Not sure about yours but with mine, it almost appeared to be some sort of infection vs bullying. It had almost a "fuzz" around the missing tail parts with the underlying structure still visible is some parts almost like an exposed skeleton

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

crayonbreaker said:
Not sure about yours but with mine, it almost appeared to be some sort of infection vs bullying. It had almost a "fuzz" around the missing tail parts with the underlying structure still visible is some parts almost like an exposed skeleton

dang I’m sorry for your loss

There doesn’t appear to be any signs of infection if anything it seems to be closing up and it looks better than a few days ago. No exposed skeleton but the injury seems to go down to the fleshy part in one part

Dom · Nov 2, 2020

I've had that happen to me with a Damselfish. It was due to aggression.

How big is the tank and what are the other inhabitants?

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

Dom said:
I've had that happen to me with a Damselfish. It was due to aggression.

How big is the tank and what are the other inhabitants?

Happened in quarantine before he got into the display he was in a tank with a neon wrasse but both seemed pretty mellow and never saw any aggression there

Tank is 5x2x3 few fairy wrasse and a small banana wrasse

92Miata · Nov 2, 2020

Hold on - this happened in QT and you still moved it to the display?

Which species is the neon wrasse? Common names aren't specific.

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

92Miata said:
Hold on - this happened in QT and you still moved it to the display?

Which species is the neon wrasse? Common names aren't specific.

The incident happened in QT but the tail loss was in the display. The first post has the details. There isn’t anything in my tank that would take a tail off so that’s why I’m attributing it to that.

Halichoeres biocellatus

Dom · Nov 2, 2020

Aussiemarine said:
Happened in quarantine before he got into the display he was in a tank with a neon wrasse but both seemed pretty mellow and never saw any aggression there

Tank is 5x2x3 few fairy wrasse and a small banana wrasse

Well.. if it happened in quarantine, then I would ask what size the quarantine tank is...

Jay Hemdal · Nov 2, 2020

Ah, those fish can be real heartbreakers. I understand what you are saying regarding an injury, but are you sure that the timeline matches up? The reason I ask is that Uronema is very common in wrasses, and pretty much 100% of the people who see it attribute it to an injury, when actually, the root cause is an internal protozoan that presents as a bruise, dard red area and scale disruption. At this point though, the cause is moot, since trying to catch it again is definitely not something to be taken lightly...

Do what you can to get calories into it......

Jay

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

Dom said:
Well.. if it happened in quarantine, then I would ask what size the quarantine tank is...

I use 2ft and 3ft tanks for tank transfer depending on fish size.

Aussiemarine · Nov 2, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Ah, those fish can be real heartbreakers. I understand what you are saying regarding an injury, but are you sure that the timeline matches up? The reason I ask is that Uronema is very common in wrasses, and pretty much 100% of the people who see it attribute it to an injury, when actually, the root cause is an internal protozoan that presents as a bruise, dard red area and scale disruption. At this point though, the cause is moot, since trying to catch it again is definitely not something to be taken lightly...

Do what you can to get calories into it......

Jay

Thanks Jay. I really hope this isn’t uronema that would be certainly worst case scenario! I’ll keep an eye on it. But as far as I could tell he didget that red like bruising on the tail then the tail loss.

I have tried to feed it today not much luck, didnt go for live blackworms or my frozen mix. Any suggestions?

Cment · Nov 2, 2020

I would pull him and start Cipro in a QT asap. Looks like a bacterial infection of some sort and if it is, I wouldn't waste time seeing what happens with him...

Jay Hemdal · Nov 2, 2020

Aussiemarine said:
Thanks Jay. I really hope this isn’t uronema that would be certainly worst case scenario! I’ll keep an eye on it. But as far as I could tell he didget that red like bruising on the tail then the tail loss.

I have tried to feed it today not much luck, didnt go for live blackworms or my frozen mix. Any suggestions?

Sorry, I can’t think of any enticing food other than live Mysids and I’m not sure where you can get those.
Jay

Dom · Nov 2, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Ah, those fish can be real heartbreakers. I understand what you are saying regarding an injury, but are you sure that the timeline matches up? The reason I ask is that Uronema is very common in wrasses, and pretty much 100% of the people who see it attribute it to an injury, when actually, the root cause is an internal protozoan that presents as a bruise, dard red area and scale disruption. At this point though, the cause is moot, since trying to catch it again is definitely not something to be taken lightly...

Do what you can to get calories into it......

Jay

Interesting. Looking at the photos I immediately thought injury. The loss is so complete, I couldn't imagine it as anything else.