Leopard Wrasse jaw issue?? Pic of damage

[lost1317]

I got this larger female blue star leopard wrasse about a week ago. My two clownfish and Melanurus wrasse gave her a rough welcoming. She was eating and stayed out for the first few days even while she was being chased and nipped a bit. On Saturday night she buried herself and didn’t come back out until this morning (Thursday). I noticed when she came out that her jaw looked different. Do you think she will recover or is she just going to wither away? I fed everyone and noticed her trying to go after the pellets.

 

[9975]

@Jay Hemdal let's get some help

 

[homer1475]

Hard to tell from the pic, but is her beak damaged?

Beak damage is almost certain death for these types of fish.

 

[lost1317]

@Jay Hemdal let's get some help

Thank you! Any help I can get is greatly appreciated!

 

[lost1317]

Hard to tell from the pic, but is her beak damaged?

Beak damage is almost certain death for these types of fish.

I'm really not sure. It looked like she was having a hard time opening her mouth but I was happy to see her eat a few pellets. That at least gives me hope.

 

[homer1475]

If it's eating, it will recover more then likely. They sometimes get beak damage from diving into the sand and hitting the bottom of the tank. How deep is your sandbed?

 

[ewanho]

U might want to try mushed up brine shrimp and if u can isloate her, use alot of the juices so she gets some nutrients if she cant open her mouth all the way ( kind of lime giving a sick person clear soups when they can eat solid foods)

 

[lost1317]

If it's eating, it will recover more then likely. They sometimes get beak damage from diving into the sand and hitting the bottom of the tank. How deep is your sandbed?

I hope so. Honestly, I'm worried about the tank mates picking on her. I put a mirror back up to try to steer their attention away from her. The sandbed is 2"+

 

[lost1317]

U might want to try mushed up brine shrimp and if u can isloate her, use alot of the juices so she gets some nutrients if she cant open her mouth all the way ( kind of lime giving a sick person clear soups when they can eat solid foods)

That's a good call. I'll see if there's a way to do that. I'm not really sure how I would be able to do that yet though. Might have to get creative with some acrylic or something.

 

[OrionN]

The Leopard wrasse pictured lost part of the upper jaw flesh. What you see is the remain bone and teeth. He may heal but unlikely to regrowth the fleshy parts. I think he can eat just fine. No problem with his throat and mouth, just missing the outer lip. Here is the picture of their open mouth structure, as you can see, the bonny part is normal but missing the flesh that cover it.
Picture of T K Lemon, from this article

Macropharyngodon: A Tale of Throated Teeth

By Lemon TeaYK The family Labridae advertises a bounteous collection of species, distributed unevenly into about seventy genera, all of which are strictly ma

reefs.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

This will likely be a deformity but do assure it eats.