Juvenile flasher wrasse stressed after transport

[adittam]

I picked up this little girl from a LFS (not that local, though) yesterday afternoon at 3:00 pm. They have a strict 15 day QT process with prazi and copper that he completed successfully, and I that I have seen the setup for, so I trust it. She looked ok at the LFS - not active, but not unwell either...hiding the back of the tank in a corner.

I kept her in a dark, cooler in the air conditioned house where we were visiting family so she wouldn’t get too warm out in the car, and when we got back home at 10:00 pm, the water temp in the bag still felt good to the touch. I floated the bag in my DT (which just completed its 45 day fallow period yesterday. I thought I would make her the first fish in there since I knew she’d be stressed from transport and then planned to move my 2 clowns and bicolor blenny from QT once she looked comfortable in a day or two) for about fifteen minutes and then netted her out and dropped her in (when doing so, she flipped around like crazy in the net, which I took as a good sign). She was breathing the entire time, but once in the tank, she was barely able to swim. She’d flip her fins to get away from the random nassarius snails or hermit crab that came to bother her where she was sitting on the rocks, but the swimming was extremely erratic. After watching her do this with no improvement for a couple hours, I netted her out and transferred her to my QT tank so the inverts wouldn’t bother her. Moved the 3 fish that had been in QT to the DT so she could have the QT tank to himself. This morning, she's still breathing, but still basically can't swim.

Is there anything I can do at this point to help her recover? Or is she likely a goner?

 

[SteveEreef]

Did you drip accumulate the wrasse to your tank? What was the salinity and PH difference between the two?

 

[adittam]

Did you drip accumulate the wrasse to your tank? What was the salinity and PH difference between the two?

I did not; I know I have read somewhere here on r2r that drip acclimating when ammonia has built up in the bag leads to increased toxicity because when you open the bag up after it's been sealed for hours the fresh air going in there actually leads to increased toxicity. Is this false?

The salinity in the bag was 1.020, my system is at 1.024. I don't know the pH of the water in the bag, but my system is at 8.0.

 

[adittam]

The video I tried to attach doesn’t seem to be working. Here’s a link to YouTube instead:

 

[Aboynamedsous2]

I had something similar happen with my blenny where he was laying on his side and not moving because of stress. I think that time is the best way to go it may take a couple days but I’m sure she’ll come around. I’m not an expert but that’s my opinion.

 

[SaltyT]

Could be something neurological going on with him. It also looks like he’s getting blown around in the corner, do you have a lot of flow in your QT?

 

[zalick]

The video I tried to attach doesn’t seem to be working. Here’s a link to YouTube instead:

I had a similar thing happen to a new flasher wrasse. It appeared to be neurological in nature. @Jay Hemdal said he's been seeing this much more frequently lately. I believe its always fatal. Mine was ok for the first few days then began swimming in circles and progressively got worse until it appeared paralyzed and I euthanized it.

 

[adittam]

Could be something neurological going on with him. It also looks like he’s getting blown around in the corner, do you have a lot of flow in your QT?

I had a similar thing happen to a new flasher wrasse. It appeared to be neurological in nature. @Jay Hemdal said he's been seeing this much more frequently lately. I believe its always fatal. Mine was ok for the first few days then began swimming in circles and progressively got worse until it appeared paralyzed and I euthanized it.

That's what I was worried about. Not a ton of flow, it's a 10g tank with an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter providing all of the flow.

 

[SaltyT]

That's what I was worried about. Not a ton of flow, it's a 10g tank with an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter providing all of the flow.

The odds aren’t great if it’s neurological I’m sorry to say If you can get some of that flow off of him it’ll help with his stress level.

 

[adittam]

The odds aren’t great if it’s neurological I’m sorry to say If you can get some of that flow off of him it’ll help with his stress level.

I'll turn the filter down.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I picked up this little girl from a LFS (not that local, though) yesterday afternoon at 3:00 pm. They have a strict 15 day QT process with prazi and copper that he completed successfully, and I that I have seen the setup for, so I trust it. She looked ok at the LFS - not active, but not unwell either...hiding the back of the tank in a corner.

I kept her in a dark, cooler in the air conditioned house where we were visiting family so she wouldn’t get too warm out in the car, and when we got back home at 10:00 pm, the water temp in the bag still felt good to the touch. I floated the bag in my DT (which just completed its 45 day fallow period yesterday. I thought I would make her the first fish in there since I knew she’d be stressed from transport and then planned to move my 2 clowns and bicolor blenny from QT once she looked comfortable in a day or two) for about fifteen minutes and then netted her out and dropped her in (when doing so, she flipped around like crazy in the net, which I took as a good sign). She was breathing the entire time, but once in the tank, she was barely able to swim. She’d flip her fins to get away from the random nassarius snails or hermit crab that came to bother her where she was sitting on the rocks, but the swimming was extremely erratic. After watching her do this with no improvement for a couple hours, I netted her out and transferred her to my QT tank so the inverts wouldn’t bother her. Moved the 3 fish that had been in QT to the DT so she could have the QT tank to himself. This morning, she's still breathing, but still basically can't swim.

Is there anything I can do at this point to help her recover? Or is she likely a goner?

Did the LFS fill the bag with oxygen or just air? If just air, the fish really shouldn’t stay in the bag more than an hour without aeration or at least water motion, and opening the bag once in awhile to replenish the oxygen.
Jay

 

[SaltyT]

BTW, is this Royal flasher wrasse from the same batch you posted a pic of in the wrasse lover’s thread? That other flasher didn’t look good I wonder if they got a bad shipment of these flashers?

 

[adittam]

BTW, is this Royal flasher wrasse from the same batch you posted a pic of in the wrasse lover’s thread? That other flasher didn’t look good I wonder if they got a bad shipment of these flashers?

Yes, same fish.

 

[adittam]

Did the LFS fill the bag with oxygen or just air? If just air, the fish really shouldn’t stay in the bag more than an hour without aeration or at least water motion, and opening the bag once in awhile to replenish the oxygen.
Jay

Just air. Good to know for the future, thanks Jay.

 

[Smite]

If I were in the position I'd turn the flow down like you plan and also kill the lights for a day. So you floated then dropped? I know people say not to drip, but I'll at least do a quicker one even if they were shipped if going straight to my display. If it's going into QT, I'll just match the salinity.

Is it possible to add an airstone? Not saying it will help for sure, but if this was stress or shock from the salinity/parameters change it might help some.

 

[adittam]

If I were in the position I'd turn the flow down like you plan and also kill the lights for a day. So you floated then dropped? I know people say not to drip, but I'll at least do a quicker one even if they were shipped if going straight to my display. If it's going into QT, I'll just match the salinity.

Is it possible to add an airstone? Not saying it will help for sure, but if this was stress or shock from the salinity/parameters change it might help some.

Yes, I floated then dropped. I thought I had read up on the best way to handle a long delay between LFS and QT at home, but obviously I made a few big mistakes. Thanks for everyone who's taken the time to reply and help teach me!

Flow has been decreased, lights have been off all day (just ambient light from the room is on). I can pull an air bubbler from my freshwater system and throw it in my QT tank if that might help too...

 

[MaxTremors]

Just air. Good to know for the future, thanks Jay.

I mean, I don’t want to kick you while you’re down, but who buys fish at 3pm and then goes and does other stuff for 8 hours while the fish sits in a bag (cooler or not)?

 

[adittam]

I mean, I don’t want to kick you while you’re down, but who buys fish at 3pm and then goes and does other stuff for 8 hours while the fish sits in a bag (cooler or not)?

I was out of town for family reasons and had a chance to visit this fish store that I'm not normally able to go to. Thanks.

 

[adittam]

I mean, I don’t want to kick you while you’re down, but who buys fish at 3pm and then goes and does other stuff for 8 hours while the fish sits in a bag (cooler or not)?

"I don't want to kick you while you're down" is pretty much the same as saying "no offense" right before you say something really offensive, isn't it?

 

[adittam]

Well, it's definitely not swimming around like nothing's wrong, but it's also definitely still alive and might even be using its fins a tiny bit more purposefully...