melanurus wrasse stays buried

[pfoxgrover]

I put a Melanurus wrasse in a 10 gallon QT with a fine sand box in a shallow Tupperware container 10 days ago. For the first few days I could catch him swimming and get some food in him (I think) but would hide pretty fast. Now he is buried round the clock and haven't got him to eat for at least 5 days. I flushed him out of the sand yesterday to make sure he was still alive. Should I remove the sand box hoping for a better chance to feed him?

 

[pfoxgrover]

 

[Gareth elliott]

I would let him be. Some fish can hide for awhile before getting accustomed.

Some ideas to get him to feel more secure, use only ambient lighting.

Add more hiding places.

Try adding some live brine shrimp to the tank.

 

[mahindra.dev]

I put a Melanurus wrasse in a 10 gallon QT with a fine sand box in a shallow Tupperware container 10 days ago. For the first few days I could catch him swimming and get some food in him (I think) but would hide pretty fast. Now he is buried round the clock and haven't got him to eat for at least 5 days. I flushed him out of the sand yesterday to make sure he was still alive. Should I remove the sand box hoping for a better chance to feed him?

Did you add anything else? They take time!! They need to get used to the new environment. Sometimes you don’t see them for 10 days!!

For me mine went missing for more than 1 week. I didn’t want to bother him. His cycle was just odd. See a new person and would hide. When I cleaned the tank, that’s when he went hiding for 10 days!! So give it some time. Is he fat and looking healthy?

There are experts here. #reefsquad

 

[HotRocks]

Are you using any type of light cycle on the QT?

I can usually get burrowers to come out during light periods and eat. Room light is sometimes not enough.

 

[pfoxgrover]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think he looked pretty well fed. I'll turn the light out. I also tried to minimize reflections. Not sure it that will help

I could try to hatch some brine shrimp that that would take a while (no one around me sells them)

 

[pfoxgrover]

Are you using any type of light cycle on the QT?

I can usually get burrowers to come out during light periods and eat. Room light is sometimes not enough.

I have an LED pendant on a timer. I tried adjusting the photo period to make my after work ours earlier in his day but only did that yesterday.

That's one vote for lights and another for just room lighting

 

[JumboShrimp]

10 days of hiding for a M. Wrasse would not be unheard of. Many years ago I had a bright yellow sand-burrowing fish (can’t recall what now to save my life), that the LFS told me would in fact bury itself for long periods at a time. Well, after 3 weeks of going ‘missing’ I was sure it has carpet-surfed out of the tank or had been turned to bones by a clean-up crew. Then one day I went to feed the fish in the tank— there he was swimming around like he’d never taken a vacation.

 

[saltyhog]

This is not greatly out of the norm. Pick a lighting schedule and stick to it. Don't disturb him in the sand. He should adapt to your time schedule (I always set my QT schedule to the same as my DT) eventually.

 

[jd371]

You can practically set a clock when my Melanurus comes out for the day and goes to sleep at night.

 

[cracker]

Please consider turning off the light & leave it be. They can hide for quite a while. Glad yours went into the sand , mine hid between the tank corner & a length of pvc .

 

[doughboy]

I've had my melanurus for a while now and I still barely see it. I can check my webcam and see it come out when nobody is around. If you want a show fish, melanurus is not the one. I would not have gotten one if I knew this behavior before hand. As others said, that is normal behavior.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I know they all act individually, but my M. Wrasse is active pretty much all day except for bedtime. Might you have very limited rock work... I have a good bit in a 6’ tank and the wrasse runs it side-to-side, in and out.

 

[Reefrookie220]

In my experience with wrasses, I feel that their internal clock is jacked up depending on collection location and actual time in the store. Chances are his schedule is the flip of yours. Let him be and don’t cause any further undo stress by stirring him out of the sand.

 

[norfolkgarden]

I've had my melanurus for a while now and I still barely see it. I can check my webcam and see it come out when nobody is around. If you want a show fish, melanurus is not the one. I would not have gotten one if I knew this behavior before hand. As others said, that is normal behavior.

Can you send a full tank shot and list of other fish?
How long you have had the Mel'?
They like a lot of hiding places.
It's wierd. The more hiding places available to them the more confident they are about moving away from them.

Ours was nearly tank boss.
Lots of smaller or similar sized fish.
But that took over 6 months to go from hiding constantly to "look at me!" "You haven't fed me in 15 minutes!" "I'm hungry again" constantly pacing back and forth in front of the tank hoping for more food.

 

[Jesterrace]

I've had my melanurus for a while now and I still barely see it. I can check my webcam and see it come out when nobody is around. If you want a show fish, melanurus is not the one. I would not have gotten one if I knew this behavior before hand. As others said, that is normal behavior.

That is definitely not the norm for a Melanurus. My Melanurus has a clockwork schedule every day and is out and about every day even before the lights come on and even for about 30 minutes to an hour after it goes off. It is very visible and active.

 

[doughboy]

Can you send a full tank shot and list of other fish?
How long you have had the Mel'?
They like a lot of hiding places.
It's wierd. The more hiding places available to them the more confident they are about moving away from them.

Ours was nearly tank boss.
Lots of smaller or similar sized fish.
But that took over 6 months to go from hiding constantly to "look at me!" "You haven't fed me in 15 minutes!" "I'm hungry again" constantly pacing back and forth in front of the tank hoping for more food.

it is not the tank or the fish. like I said, I can see the fish out and about via webcam. but as soon as I walk up to the tank, it goes into the sand. I probably had the fish for 10 months. Maybe in due time.

 

[liveround69]

I've had a Melanurus Wrasse for the last 4 years. He did the same thing when I first brought him home. Always hid and didnt want to eat. I have him in the tank with a six line wrasse and a breeding pair of Maroon Clownfish since the initial day he came home. There was one time he got into a scuffle with the female Maroon once and didnt seem like he was going to live. He laid on the sandbed for two days and acted like the end was near. Then he spent 5 days in the sandbed and a week after the battle he was back out running around the tank being his normal self. They are pretty tough fish so give him a chance to settle down and relax. He will come out eventually. Bad thing about them is that most if not all wrasses jump out of tanks without tops. Take the advice to get a lid of some sort. Good thing is that you will not have a flatworm problem as long as he stays in your tank.

 

[eatbreakfast]

When first added melanurus can be shy and stay buried for an extended period of time. However, in most cases they become very bold.

Their internal clock is very different, and that takes time for them to adjust.

They bury for protextion, so digging them out of the sand only makes their hiding worse.

 

[pfoxgrover]

Thanks for all the great inputs! Patience is hard to muster when quarantining fish. Usually for QT I strive to be engaged so that I can find issues and quickly respond to them. This guy wont even let me see him. I saw a shadow swim by this morning when the lights were out but couldn't find him after that. I let him adjust and hope for the best. Thanks again for the help!