Melanurus Acting Strange

[Sparky_Kaminari]

Hello everybody! New to RTR, joined to get some help.
I recently picked up a Melanurus Wrasse, and he is in QT with a container of sand. Starting yesterday, he has his mouth open a tiny bit, and he stopped eating. When I tried feeding him yesterday, he didn’t eat anything, but I watched him cough/spit up some mysis that he must have eaten earlier in the day. He is still sleeping in the sand bed, but during the day he is much less active now, swimming around very slowly. Does anyone know what I can do for the guy?

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

I should add, he had been acting completely fine before this started, eating and everything, very active.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

fwiw my melanarus will randomly swim around with it's mouth open for a couple seconds. it acts fine and healthy eats like a pig. never thought too much of it

 

[MichaelReefer]

Mine did that when he ran into the bottom of the tank and broke his jaw. I had him for 3 years with a broken Jaw and lost him about three months ago.

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

fwiw my melanarus will randomly swim around with it's mouth open for a couple seconds. it acts fine and healthy eats like a pig. never thought too much of it

Mines doing it constantly. I searched “Melanurus wrasse” online and “Melanurus wrasse lockjaw” and overall my dude looks normal. Im only concerned because he stopped eating.

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

Mine did that when he ran into the bottom of the tank and broke his jaw. I had him for 3 years with a broken Jaw and lost him about three months ago.

What would a broken jaw look like?

 

[MnFish1]

Hello everybody! New to RTR, joined to get some help.
I recently picked up a Melanurus Wrasse, and he is in QT with a container of sand. Starting yesterday, he has his mouth open a tiny bit, and he stopped eating. When I tried feeding him yesterday, he didn’t eat anything, but I watched him cough/spit up some mysis that he must have eaten earlier in the day. He is still sleeping in the sand bed, but during the day he is much less active now, swimming around very slowly. Does anyone know what I can do for the guy?

If its constant - it can be a symptom of Flukes - did you happen to use any medications to QT?

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

If its constant - it can be a symptom of Flukes - did you happen to use any medications to QT?

I have used metro so far, but thats it. Planned to use prazi as well. But I tend to use tank transfer method rather than copper in quarantine so I haven’t used any other medications yet. I have no experience with flukes personally. Could you explain them to me?

 

[MnFish1]

I have used metro so far, but thats it. Planned to use prazi as well. But I tend to use tank transfer method rather than copper in quarantine so I haven’t used any other medications yet. I have no experience with flukes personally. Could you explain them to me?

So one issue is that TTM works for Cryptocaryon. Not necessarily for everything. The recommendations here are posted at the top of the thread - copper then prazipro

 

[MnFish1]

I have used metro so far, but thats it. Planned to use prazi as well. But I tend to use tank transfer method rather than copper in quarantine so I haven’t used any other medications yet. I have no experience with flukes personally. Could you explain them to me?

I would follow your plan

 

[Cole_Voeller]

I would follow your plan

Anything I can do now to encourage him to eat?

 

[MichaelReefer]

What would a broken jaw look like

His mouth was stuck open, he would eat by sucking food in. Lived like that for 3 years.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Can you post a video?
Is the fish breathing at a normal rate?
Jay

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

Can you post a video?
Is the fish breathing at a normal rate?
Jay

Hopefully these files aren’t too large.
Just after recording this he coughed up some more what I believe to by mysis or mucus/slime.

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

Can you post a video?
Is the fish breathing at a normal rate?
Jay

Here, I put the vidoes onto Youtube so you can actually view them.
He’s showing his stress lines which he didn’t do until yesterday as well.
I also saw that he had a white stringy poop today, but it could have possibly been some debris from the bottom of the tank, but I’m not 100% sure.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks, I just wanted to rule out rapid breathing, seems ok in the video. It does seem to be swimming a bit wobbly. I do wonder if it crashed into the tank wall or something?
Jay

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

Thanks, I just wanted to rule out rapid breathing, seems ok in the video. It does seem to be swimming a bit wobbly. I do wonder if it crashed into the tank wall or something?
Jay

I’m not too sure what could have happened. Does his mouth look fine in your opinion? He has it open slightly, but it doesn’t look like lockjaw or a broken jaw from what I’ve seen online. Because of his (what I think might be) poop, should I use Prazi, or metro? Or anything else I should try? He hasn’t eaten anything today or the later half of yesterday, and he has been doing his wobbly swimming for the better part of today.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

White, transparent mucus can be a symptom of not having any food passing through the gut. It can also be a sign of bacterial or protozoan infection. It virtually is never caused by tapeworms, so I would not use prazi in this case.

Metronidazole would be the best guess, but it works best when dosed properly in food (at 0.50% by weight). Obviously that won't work since the fish isn't eating. Adding metro to the tank water is a distant second place (marine fish do drink some water, but not much).

Jay

 

[Sparky_Kaminari]

White, transparent mucus can be a symptom of not having any food passing through the gut. It can also be a sign of bacterial or protozoan infection. It virtually is never caused by tapeworms, so I would not use prazi in this case.

Metronidazole would be the best guess, but it works best when dosed properly in food (at 0.50% by weight). Obviously that won't work since the fish isn't eating. Adding metro to the tank water is a distant second place (marine fish do drink some water, but not much).

Jay

I tried getting him to eat metro mixed with his food. Sadly he died this morning. I have no idea why he suddenly began acting like this. I’m so upset.

 

[MnFish1]

I tried getting him to eat metro mixed with his food. Sadly he died this morning. I have no idea why he suddenly began acting like this. I’m so upset.

Sorry to hear it