New Fairy Wrasse Looking Poor

[Gedxin]

Hey all, recently acquired a conditioned katherine's wrasse from DrReef's. Came in Thursday and was active/swimming/eating. This morning (Sunday), it has heavy labored breathing, blotches on its skin and is kind of flopping around. Color is dramatically different from Thurs/Fri. This looks like it's progressed rapidly since yesterday. I've attached a video.

Tank is 2.5 months old, started with live rock. Had 6 pajama cardinals in on week 2. Added 4 anthias, 1 yellow watchman goby along with the wrasse. No ammonia measured. nitrates 4.3, phosphates 0. Specific gravity 1.025.

Video below, any help is appreciated or if there's not much I can do.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all, recently acquired a conditioned katherine's wrasse from DrReef's. Came in Thursday and was active/swimming/eating. This morning (Sunday), it has heavy labored breathing, blotches on its skin and is kind of flopping around. Color is dramatically different from Thurs/Fri. This looks like it's progressed rapidly since yesterday. I've attached a video.

Tank is 2.5 months old, started with live rock. Had 6 pajama cardinals in on week 2. Added 4 anthias, 1 yellow watchman goby along with the wrasse. No ammonia measured. nitrates 4.3, phosphates 0. Specific gravity 1.025.

Video below, any help is appreciated or if there's not much I can do.

There is some evident bloating in which during shipment, it may have ingested air in the bag causing temporary bladder issue. Also, how did you acclimate fish and for how long ?
You said it was eating. What were you feeding it ? Pellets can at times if not pallatable cause digestive issues.
Breathing does not seem crazy fast but often associated with stress or water quality. What test kits are you using ?

 

[Gedxin]

Annnnd, he's dead. Wow, just an insanely rapid decline, never seen anything like it. So sad...and disappointing.

Sorry little buddy.

There is some evident bloating in which during shipment, it may have ingested air in the bag causing temporary bladder issue. Also, how did you acclimate fish and for how long ?
You said it was eating. What were you feeding it ? Pellets can at times if not pallatable cause digestive issues.
Breathing does not seem crazy fast but often associated with stress or water quality. What test kits are you using ?

Fish acclimation was for about 1hr. I followed DrReef's acclimation, salinity was only .001 off from testing the water params.

I'm feeding BRS pellets AM, frozen brine and reef nutrition flakes NOON, frozen mysis and hikari pellets PM.

Using Red Sea and Hanna test kits.

 

[Chrisv.]

Annnnd, he's dead. Wow, just an insanely rapid decline, never seen anything like it. So sad...and disappointing.

Sorry little buddy.

Fish acclimation was for about 1. I followed DrReef's acclimation, salinity was only .001 off from testing the water params.

I'm feeding BRS pellets AM, frozen brine and reef nutrition flakes NOON, frozen mysis and hikari pellets PM.

Using Red Sea and Hanna test kits.

Bummer. Sorry about that.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Annnnd, he's dead. Wow, just an insanely rapid decline, never seen anything like it. So sad...and disappointing.

Sorry little buddy.

Fish acclimation was for about 1hr. I followed DrReef's acclimation, salinity was only .001 off from testing the water params.

I'm feeding BRS pellets AM, frozen brine and reef nutrition flakes NOON, frozen mysis and hikari pellets PM.

Using Red Sea and Hanna test kits.

Thats not good. if it was drip acclimation, im not a fan of such. I suspected dry foods/pellets as it can at time cause digestive issues. Shipping stress however was likely issue as there are No apparent blemishes, marks or frays to suggest other causes

 

[Tcook]

I agree. This was likely shipped in O2. For wrasses, which are not as resilient, I float for temperature, match salinity, then dump. If DT salinity significantly higher then this is into a salinity matched observation tank. However, if this fish was doing well for a few days then probably not due to ammonia. What was the salinity in the bag and what salinity is your tank at?

 

[Gedxin]

Bag salinity 1.023, my tank 1.024. I floated 30min temp, salinity was .001 away, so after a few cupfuls of water out of the bucket, tank water in, I think I dropped in the tank within 30min after salinity match.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Bag salinity 1.023, my tank 1.024. I floated 30min temp, salinity was .001 away, so after a few cupfuls of water out of the bucket, tank water in, I think I dropped in the tank within 30min after salinity match.

Sorry to hear it died.

It wasn't an acclimation issue...the parameters were close and besides, the fish was fine for 72 hours. Acclimation problems show up in the first 24 hours, more often immediately. They are then fatal, or get better over time, not the other way around.

Something happened to it after it had been in your tank and adapting well. One thing that keeps coming up with these wrasse is a strike injury - the new fish gets spooked and runs into a wall and dies.

What other fish are in the tank with it?
Did you get any others on the same shipment?

Jay

 

[Gedxin]

Sorry to hear it died.

It wasn't an acclimation issue...the parameters were close and besides, the fish was fine for 72 hours. Acclimation problems show up in the first 24 hours, more often immediately. They are then fatal, or get better over time, not the other way around.

Something happened to it after it had been in your tank and adapting well. One thing that keeps coming up with these wrasse is a strike injury - the new fish gets spooked and runs into a wall and dies.

What other fish are in the tank with it?
Did you get any others on the same shipment?

Jay

Great questions Jay, thanks for your input.

So a number of other fish came in as well. 4 ignitus anthias (one male, three female), and a yellow watchman goby. The goby was giving me the biggest spooks yesterday and was kind of swimming strange, glass surfing and resting on the overflow, even got pushed through the power head once and knocked around to land and rest for 30min (briefly thought he was dead.) He's still alive today and seems ok.

I did find one dead anthias this evening (just an hour ago.) My mantis shrimp (about 1") was eating it. It's a live rock hitch hiker. I've had 6 small cardinalfish in this tank with the mantis for the past 2 months - no harm to them. I find it possible, but unlikely the mantis attacked, as I believe it also has bashers, not piercers.

So I have 3 anthias and 1 watch goby that have 'survived' and are still doing OK in the tank. The other 6 fish are pajama cardinals. The wrasse was the biggest boy in the tank, with the male anthias about 80% its size.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Great questions Jay, thanks for your input.

So a number of other fish came in as well. 4 ignitus anthias (one male, three female), and a yellow watchman goby. The goby was giving me the biggest spooks yesterday and was kind of swimming strange, glass surfing and resting on the overflow, even got pushed through the power head once and knocked around to land and rest for 30min (briefly thought he was dead.) He's still alive today and seems ok.

I did find one dead anthias this evening (just an hour ago.) My mantis shrimp (about 1") was eating it. It's a live rock hitch hiker. I've had 6 small cardinalfish in this tank with the mantis for the past 2 months - no harm to them. I find it possible, but unlikely the mantis attacked, as I believe it also has bashers, not piercers.

So I have 3 anthias and 1 watch goby that have 'survived' and are still doing OK in the tank. The other 6 fish are pajama cardinals. The wrasse was the biggest boy in the tank, with the male anthias about 80% its size.

I don't trust mantis in with fish, but a 1" long smasher would not be likely to cause problems except perhaps for the goby (but the shrimp will grow).

Jay