Please help!

[Mangelotta1]

My wrasse out of no where started swimming oddly. Soon after breathing heavy, and barely eating followed by laying on the sand bed on his side. I was unable to locate him for 3 days and all of a sudden he is back but not moving, grasping for life. I've had this fish for almost 3years and have no idea how to help him. Need some advice asap!! I have a healthy system and it's been running for over 3 years.

 

[leahfiish]

Double check your water parameters - temp, pH, ammonia, salinity especially.

Were any new fish added?
How do your other fish look?

Melanarus wrasses bury in the sand when they are stressed so that could be where he was hiding, but the question is why?

Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's much else you could do at the moment. Turn the lights off to try to help him calm down and keep a close eye on your other fish.

 

[Mangelotta1]

He's beyond stressed just laying on the sand bed. I'm not sure what to do. I can't just leave him but doing nothing will result in death

 

[leahfiish]

Sometimes they might need space to calm down and catch their breath and reorient themselves with their surroundings. But unfortunately I think at this point it's usually too late. :/ in my experiences wrasses will come out of the sand when they are about to die. Your best course of action, imo, is to leave him be.

 

[leahfiish]

Also, 3 years is pretty good, you gave him a good life. From what I've read most reef wrasses have a life span of about 5 years, and there's no way to know how old he was when he was collected.

 

[Mangelotta1]

I appreciate your help. I figured nature has to run its course at this point.

 

[jsker]

Sorry about that.

 

[Salty1962]

Sorry to say but it doesn't look like it's going to pull through. 3 yrs. isn't old but who knows exactly how old it was before you got it.

 

[Mangelotta1]

He passed