Sick six line wrasse?

[Aronsaquarium]

Hi!
Is anyone able to tell if my wrasse is sick? And if it is, what the treatment should be?

I noticed yesterday and today that it seems to be bloated and swimming a little jittery for lack of a better word

it’s eating and swimming around nicely otherwise but something seams off.

im currently hopefully almost at the end of a prazipro treatment in my DT.

75g
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrates (prazipro just got rid of all my nitrates. Just Lost an anemone because of it/the prazi.)
Over a year established tank. I’ve had thE wrasse for almost a year now.

 

[Aronsaquarium]

I’m not sure if the video in the above post is working, so here’s a picture of the bloating

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I was able to download the video - here is my impression: the "jittery" swimming seems to be in response to the fish being positively buoyant. The two causes of that are gas in the digestive system or swim bladder over-inflation. I've also seen this in fish that were fed a bunch of dried foods at one time, but the issue soon passes.

Given this fish's swollen abdomen, I'd say the issue is gas in the digestive system. This can be due to intestinal blockage or gas production from bacteria, or both at the same time.

You'll find all sorts of "cures" for constipation, but the two most common ones - feeding the fish peas and adding Epsom salts to the water are both freshwater fancy goldfish remedies and don't work on marine fish.

Since the fish is still feeding, what about feeding it some high fiber food like frozen brine shrimp?

Fish can bloat for three other reasons, but those do not affect buoyancy: overfeeding, ascites (fluid in the belly) or eggs.

Jay

 

[Aronsaquarium]

I was able to download the video - here is my impression: the "jittery" swimming seems to be in response to the fish being positively buoyant. The two causes of that are gas in the digestive system or swim bladder over-inflation. I've also seen this in fish that were fed a bunch of dried foods at one time, but the issue soon passes.

Given this fish's swollen abdomen, I'd say the issue is gas in the digestive system. This can be due to intestinal blockage or gas production from bacteria, or both at the same time.

You'll find all sorts of "cures" for constipation, but the two most common ones - feeding the fish peas and adding Epsom salts to the water are both freshwater fancy goldfish remedies and don't work on marine fish.

Since the fish is still feeding, what about feeding it some high fiber food like frozen brine shrimp?

Fish can bloat for three other reasons, but those do not affect buoyancy: overfeeding, ascites (fluid in the belly) or eggs.

Jay

Hi Jay,
Thanks so much for your response!

so these are the 4 things I feed my fish.
Frozen Mysis in the morning
Frozen spirulina brine shrimp in the evening
And depending on how quickly they finish the food I’ll add some pellets and flakes.

typically they’re done eating in a matter of a few min

is this the brine shrimp you’re talking about or I should be buying something something else for the tank?

and is there a chance that the prazipro treatments hurt him?

I’ve been dosing prazi since Monday the 15th.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi Jay,
Thanks so much for your response!

so these are the 4 things I feed my fish.
Frozen Mysis in the morning
Frozen spirulina brine shrimp in the evening
And depending on how quickly they finish the food I’ll add some pellets and flakes.

typically they’re done eating in a matter of a few min

is this the brine shrimp you’re talking about or I should be buying something something else for the tank?

and is there a chance that the prazipro treatments hurt him?

I’ve been dosing prazi since Monday the 15th.

You will read “wrasse don’t handle Prazipro well” - I’m not sure where that comes from, I’ve never had issues as long as you aerate the tank well. I would say this is unrelated to Prazipro - just one slim possibility - prazi kills tapeworms. If the wrasse had a big tapeworm and it died, it could be causing an obstruction and bacteria gas buildup.
Can you tell if my supposition that the fish is positively buoyant is correct? Do you see it tend to float up if it stops swimming?
Jay

 

[Aronsaquarium]

You will read “wrasse don’t handle Prazipro well” - I’m not sure where that comes from, I’ve never had issues as long as you aerate the tank well. I would say this is unrelated to Prazipro - just one slim possibility - prazi kills tapeworms. If the wrasse had a big tapeworm and it died, it could be causing an obstruction and bacteria gas buildup.
Can you tell if my supposition that the fish is positively buoyant is correct? Do you see it tend to float up if it stops swimming?

 

[Aronsaquarium]

Thanks for that!
So this is tough to answer because now I’m not sure if my brain is messing with me or not, but now that you said that, it does look like it’s harder for him to swim downwards than upwards, and the “bouncy swimming” seems to be more pronounced when it has to swim downwards

 

[Aronsaquarium]

@Jay Hemdal
Is there a treatment you know of for that?
Or do I just have to wait for it to pass, and try feeing brine shrimp to it?

And should I not feed anything else to the tank? Or can I continue with mysis too

I tried feeding spirulina brine shrimp now, and he kept running for them eating a piece and spitting it out a few seconds later.
So I’m not sure if it’s having an issue digesting or it was just setting what it wanted and spitting out the rest. Though they looked mostly untouched

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal
Is there a treatment you know of for that?
Or do I just have to wait for it to pass, and try feeing brine shrimp to it?

And should I not feed anything else to the tank? Or can I continue with mysis too

I tried feeding spirulina brine shrimp now, and he kept running for them eating a piece and spitting it out a few seconds later.
So I’m not sure if it’s having an issue digesting or it was just setting what it wanted and spitting out the rest. Though they looked mostly untouched

Oh, taking food in and spitting it out is a bad symptom. It means the fish has the will to feed, but something is keeping it from swallowing (like an obstruction). There isn’t any treatment for that sort of thing though….just time.
Jay