Should I do surgery on my melanurus wrasse?

Catfish2 · Mar 15, 2019

It's hard to see in the pic, but his teeth have gone through his upper lip and his upper lip is now in the opening of his mouth. He is swimming without any apparent distress and is trying to eat, but can't actually get any food in his mouth because his lip is in the way.

I'm afraid he's just going to starve to death.

Should I remove his upper lip?

If so, how? I've heard alcohol can be used as anesthesia for fish, but I don't know what concentration.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jesterrace · Mar 15, 2019

You would be amazed at how well fish can heal on their own if you give them time. Particularly a Melanurus Wrasse. My Melanurus Wrasse got stung by my foxface with a big cyst on the side of it's face and it couldn't close it's mouth for nearly a month. With time though he still found a way to get by on small bits of food that it could swallow whole until things healed up. It's now back to normal and eating as usual. I just don't know what you could possibly do to help it that won't cause more stress or damage to the fish.

67chevellemalibu2 · Mar 15, 2019

You don’t know how that happened? That’s the same thing that happened to my Christmas wrasse awhile ago. It’s mouth doesn’t look right, but it eats with no issues. Its fine with time.

Catfish2 · Mar 15, 2019

Jesterrace said:
You would be amazed at how well fish can heal on their own if you give them time. Particularly a Melanurus Wrasse. My Melanurus Wrasse got stung by my foxface with a big cyst on the side of it's face and it couldn't close it's mouth for nearly a month. With time though he still found a way to get by on small bits of food that it could swallow whole until things healed up. It's now back to normal and eating as usual. I just don't know what you could possibly do to help it that won't cause more stress or damage to the fish.

Thanks for the input. I'm definately concerned about making things worse by adding stress and possibly introducing infection. I would leave him alone if he was at least getting some food, but im worried he's gonna starve.

Catfish2 · Mar 15, 2019

67chevellemalibu2 said:
You don’t know how that happened? That’s the same thing that happened to my Christmas wrasse awhile ago. It’s mouth doesn’t look right, but it eats with no issues. Its fine with time.

No. I'm not sure how it happened. I just noticed he wasn't closing his mouth a couple days ago and when I looked closer I could see his top teeth were exposed and his lip was obstructing his mouth. I was wondering if this was a common issue.

mort · Mar 15, 2019

This is the kind of injury that's common with sand burying fish. It's a result of them bashing their jaw as they try to go under the sand.
Personally I wouldn't attempt to fix it myself as it would be very stressful and extremely delicate, plus you'd likely do more damage. I've seen fish survive with this type of injury but also some perish. I can't tell from the picture but I've seen fish with slightly worse looking problems do well. A fish that was a healthy weight to begin with can easily last a couple of weeks without eating, so i would give it some time to resolve itself and heal for a while before considering the next step.

evolved · Mar 15, 2019

mort said:
This is the kind of injury that's common with sand burying fish. It's a result of them bashing their jaw as they try to go under the sand.

Yes, typically this, or it can happen during shipment in a bag for the same reasons.
Typically infection is the primary concern - and the only way to treat/prevent that is in a hospital/QT tank with antibiotics. If it is or gets infected, it will kill the fish unless treated.

Catfish2 · Mar 28, 2019

As an update, my melanurus was unable to eat and began to lose weight. I figured he would eventually die of starvation or I could risk the outcome of removing his lip. I decided to remove the lip.

Well, he tolerated the procedure well and is eating like a champ again. During the procedure, he lost his top two teeth. Now he has a serious underbite, but he's able eat again and there is no sign of infection.

TvanB1 · Mar 28, 2019

Catfish2 said:
As an update, my melanurus was unable to eat and began to lose weight. I figured he would eventually die of starvation or I could risk the outcome of removing his lip. I decided to remove the lip.

Well, he tolerated the procedure well and is eating like a champ again. During the procedure, he lost his top two teeth. Now he has a serious underbite, but he's able eat again and there is no sign of infection.

Nice!
How did you remove the lip? How long since the procedure? Did you use any antibiotics after?

cracker · Mar 28, 2019

WOW !Good job Man! how did Ya do the surgery?

ccombs · Mar 28, 2019

mattzang · Mar 29, 2019

dang, nice work dude!

reef lover · Mar 29, 2019

Wow! Nicely done!

reefscrub_ · Sep 2, 2021

Catfish2 said:
As an update, my melanurus was unable to eat and began to lose weight. I figured he would eventually die of starvation or I could risk the outcome of removing his lip. I decided to remove the lip.

Well, he tolerated the procedure well and is eating like a champ again. During the procedure, he lost his top two teeth. Now he has a serious underbite, but he's able eat again and there is no sign of infection.

Hey did your wrasse‘s mouth ever fully recover?