Odd behavior from Melanurus Wrasse

spartanman22 · Jul 26, 2016

I'm wrapping up a current batch of fish through QT and have noticed some odd behavior from my Melanurus wrasse. Just to catch you all up, the fish went through a 30 day CP treatment. After the CP treatment I put them through a Furan-2 treatment due to an external injury one of the fish had. I've now done multiple 5 gallon water changes and put carbon back in the HOB filter.

Throughout the CP treatment my Melanurus wrasse has eat next to nothing. I've seen him go after some food every few days, but I'm honestly surprised he's still alive. But the odd behavior is that he swims right at the surface at all times during the day.

I haven't seen any signs of external parasites. No twitching, he's not swimming into flow, scales look good, no fin rot or anything.

Is there something I'm missing or is he just an odd fish? I'm planning on doing a prazi dose as well just to be safe. They are scheduled to go into the display this weekend. So just want to be 100% sure he's good before in transfer them.

redfishbluefish · Jul 26, 2016

Have you given him a sand bed to sleep in at night?

If not, and it's a bare bottom tank, put sand into a Tupperware type container for him to bury himself at night.

4FordFamily · Jul 26, 2016

That behavior (all of it) tells the story of a very stressed, possibly ill wrasse. Melanarus should eat like pigs they're very hardy in my experience although finicky with medications sometimes.

I would try live blackworms and live brine to stimulate significant eating ASAP and I recommend prazi because that also sounds like possible flukes or internal parasites to me.

eatbreakfast · Jul 26, 2016

I would give it a break from the meds for a couple of days. Melanurus wrasses are normally eager feeders. There shouldn't be much disease or parasite issues left after 30 days of cp.

Salsa777 · Jul 26, 2016

My melanurus eats like a pig, Maybe try to add some garlic to his food, that should stimulate his feeding, and it could maybe help with the parasites or whatever could be causing the problems. Now sometime wrasses do swim in weird ways like doing flips and darting around the tank.

spartanman22 · Jul 27, 2016

He used to eat like a pig. I had a Tupperware of sand in there but they've since emptied it. I've been doing multiple water changes to try and get all meds out. Tonight I'm going to do a round of prazi as a last measure before going back to the DT on Friday. All other fish look extremely healthy. I spend 20-30 minutes a day observing and haven't noticed anything that would suggest illness.

jd371 · Jul 27, 2016

My Melanurus attacks all food especially Black Worms, he goes crazy for them. The only odd behavior I notice is once and a while he'll chase his tail like a dog.