Swim bladder issue, fairy wrasse

leahfiish · Jul 21, 2017

This fish arrived at my lfs last Friday, I observed it throughout the week and brought it home on Wednesday. I matched my qt (which has been cycled and set up for about two months) salinity to the bag salinity, did a quick acclimation and put him in. Yesterday I noticed he seemed to be having some trouble swimming, but today it's gotten much worse.
I have never seen a fish that is doing these death spirals recover, however, he does seem to still have a healthy appetite. I have read previous threads about this and it seems like it's usually either a blockage or an infection. He has been eating larger pieces of food (pe mysis, and he's only about 2") so I'm hoping it's a blockage. I can't see any kind of discoloration or bubbles or anything. It is a brunneus wrasse and I know they are collected in deeper water. I didn't have any issues catching him from the qt tank, but he did kind of freak out and flail around a bit when I moved him from the acclimation bucket into the tank. I'm worried he may have injured himself.

Any thoughts?

melypr1985 · Jul 21, 2017

Have you checked for flukes yet? I wish the QT was better lit for the video... the back lighting from the other tank makes it hard to see the details like breathing. I wouldn't call those death spirals, but it's not entirely normal either. have you treated for anything yet? No ammonia?

leahfiish · Jul 21, 2017

No ammonia, breathing looks normal to me. Haven't checked for flukes but I can. I am just hesitant to do it without a good reason because I don't want to make it worse. This fish was in a clean tank and by itself at the lfs.

leahfiish · Jul 21, 2017

I dosed prime just in case of ammonia although it looks good to me based on the alert, and there's a cycled sponge, matrix, and a small piece of live rock from my display. So I don't think that would be an issue but I figured it wouldn't hurt. I guess the video doesn't show the death spirals that much but trust me he is doing them. But also still eating any food he sees, although it takes him a few attempts to actually get it.

Humblefish · Jul 21, 2017

Let's call in the wrasse experts @evolved @eatbreakfast

evolved · Jul 22, 2017

So it doesn't look all that bad to me. Yes, he's a bit loopy, but not to the point where I think things have turned a corner.

It typically takes about 2 weeks for a swim bladder issue to manifest from collection. That'd put this right at the perfect timing. However, the fish is also in what appears to be a zero-flow environment. That can make them act strange on it's own.

At this point, I'd run antibiotics and just keep an eye on things.

leahfiish · Jul 22, 2017

I guess the video doesn't really show the spiraling too much but he's definitely swimming pretty weirdly.
There's been no change since last night.
I've added antibiotics and will keep dosing prime just in case.
Would a small powerhead to create more flow help him?

evolved · Jul 22, 2017

leahfiish said:
Would a small powerhead to create more flow help him?

If it's worse than it looks, no.

leahfiish · Jul 22, 2017

Thanks that's what I figured.

I think he's gotten a little worse, 90% of the time that he is swimming is vertical (head pointed up) or spirals, but still eating, although it seems to take a lot of effort. His swimming patterns also don't change much when he can see me; previously he was a bit on the shy side. That leads me to believe he doesn't have a lot of control over his swimming. I did observe him tuck himself into a little tunnel, and I thought he would try to get some rest but he came back out a few seconds later (swimming horizontally and seemingly normal) only to go nose up again a few seconds later.

The fact that he is still eating does give me a little hope, though.

leahfiish · Jul 22, 2017

Video of the spirals (heavy breathing noted during the spirals, understandably, but not immediately beforehand)

Humblefish · Jul 22, 2017

@leahfiish Any chance this could be a spinal injury? From jumping or he banged into something too hard?

leahfiish · Jul 22, 2017

Humblefish said:
@leahfiish Any chance this could be a spinal injury? From jumping or he banged into something too hard?

I was thinking that might be it, but I don't think there's really any way to tell? I hadnt noticed him being very jumpy or flighty when I was observing him last week, he would just retreat down to the cover on the bottom of the tank. I was thinking he may have injured himself during the ride home, though, since I first started noticing issues on Thursday after bringing him home Wednesday evening. He seemed fine in the bucket, but panicked a little when I was catching him (in a colander) to go in the Qt tank.

leahfiish · Jul 22, 2017

I just feel like there's nothing I can do for him, and every time I watch him spin around I think "well, that's it, he's dead"

Does anyone think a freshwater dip might help? Do flukes cause this behavior at all? I just think it's too coincidental to be flukes because I didn't see any problems when he was at the store, only after transportation.

Humblefish · Jul 22, 2017

leahfiish said:
Does anyone think a freshwater dip might help? Do flukes cause this behavior at all? I just think it's too coincidental to be flukes because I didn't see any problems when he was at the store, only after transportation.

A FW dip would help relieve symptoms if this is flukes or velvet.

A Methylene Blue bath would help if he had an external injury, or was suffering from ammonia poisoning: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/methylene-blue.257467/

But it won't do much if the damage is internal.

leahfiish · Jul 23, 2017

I was preparing to do a freshwater dip but it looks like he's settled down for the night. He's tucked under a small overhang on the rock, oriented normally. I guess I'll see how he's doing in the morning.

leahfiish · Jul 23, 2017

No improvement. He is still eating and there are still short periods where he swims normally, but I'm losing hope of a full recovery.

leahfiish · Jul 26, 2017

Update: no swimming improvements over the last few days, primarily swims upside down but still eating.

Today I found him stuck in a hole on the piece of live rock. I tried to gently blow him out with a turkey baster and also tried jiggling the rock around a little and lifting it out of the water. No luck.

I don't think he can free himself on his own but I don't want to hurt him. I feel very unlucky right now.

Humblefish · Jul 26, 2017

Unfortunately, it sounds like physical damage and in most cases wrasses do not recover from that.

leahfiish · Jul 28, 2017

Okay, I honestly expected this fish to die last Friday but he's still hanging in there.
I removed him from the rock as gently as I could and he had some small scrapes on his skin. I thought for sure that was the final blow. He floated up to the top, upside down. And has remained at the surface, mostly upside down, since then. I've continued with antibiotics (kanaplex). He is still showing an appetite and tried to chase his food but his mobility is severely limited, it seems like he can't sink more than a few inches below the surface now, and I can see a little bit of his belly actually coming out of the water just slightly. I'm wondering if I should try venting the swim bladder, like shown on the sticky. I'm not prepared for that right now, the earliest I could do it is tomorrow morning, but I can at least do some research to try and figure out if it would help. It may at least alleviate some of his symptoms although if he still has spine damage it won't really matter.