Weird wrasse behavior

[Nathan Milender]

I just completed a QT batch. One oscellaris died within 48 hours of arrival after an obvious issue with positive buoyancy. Had no spots or obvious disease, just seemed to run out of gas trying to get down.

QT continued with isc shield (what I had for chloroquine, I just got a better supply of pure CQ) for 3 weeks, metro soaked flakes and 4 days of prazi at the end. On the last day the carpenter wrasse started swimming funny. No other sign of disease. He would turn on his side, upside down, and just listlessly go with the current until he decided to swim. He could swim normally, but it was like a teenager demonstrating too much effort to take out the trash. I left him in QT and transferred the other fish to DT. He will still back into his pvc tube night and then come out with the lights. No sign of disease in any other fish but I have not seen one of the barnacle blennies since the transfer (4 days).

With the other fish removed I did a nearly complete water change on the QT to remove all medication. No change in behavior. He does peck at food but seems less hungry since the other fish were moved out. I read about spinal injuries and such, he does have the ability to move all fins including spreading rays and large swim muscle movements when desired, just seems to often choose not to. No spots, bulges, frayed fins, maintained color. Both eyes bulge a little but it is symmetrical and has not changed.

Is this illness or some sort of wrasse fun? Fish concussion? Lateral line disease affecting proprioception? I have never before had a wrasse so it could just be what these are. I have some more fish coming tomorrow. Do I leave him in QT for another run or transfer him? I am leaning towards leaving him in QT and letting him do another round of CQ, prazi, and if needed general cure and/or kanaplex. I would get a picture but there is nothing to see. I would do a video, but I do not think I have anything that can take video.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

This sounds like a spinal injury, some of these injuries may be induced by meds and not always physical injury. What you are probably seeing is the wrasse slowly losing its ability to swim possibly due to spinal swelling. You can try 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts per 5 gallons for swelling. I would keep him in a low flow environment.
Let’s get a second opinion though
@HotRocks @4FordFamily

 

[4FordFamily]

This sounds like a spinal injury, some of these injuries may be induced by meds and not always physical injury. What you are probably seeing is the wrasse slowly losing its ability to swim possibly due to spinal swelling. You can try 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts per 5 gallons for swelling. I would keep him in a low flow environment.
Let’s get a second opinion though
@HotRocks @4FordFamily

Likely culprit. Can you post a video of this behavior? A wrasse with a spinal injury with often swim as if sinkers are tied to its tail, and then eventually be unable to control themselves before becoming nearly paralyzed for some time. Some pull out of it, others don’t unfortunately.

The buoyancy issue with the clown was a swimbladder issue most likely.

 

[Sashaka]

Reading your post, I was reminded of some swim bladder problems I encountered years ago when I was keeping freshwater fish. I wondered if your clown suffered from similar issue. I did a quick search and didn't find much, but I did come across a video (link below). I'm not sure that I agree with everything this gentleman says or does, but the video provided an interesting visual of hand feeding a sick trigger! I don't think I would have gotten my fingers as close to that mouth! I know I would not have kept petting it like a dog as I would have been afraid of disturbing the natural slime coat necessary to keep the fish healthy. Come to think of it, he mentions in the video that all his fish are use to his handling. Putting his hands constantly in the tank may be his problem in the first place!

 

[Nathan Milender]

I thought about getting a video but I do not think I have a digital video device. Maybe my wife's phone but I am not sure she knows how to work it. He does not swim like he is weighted down. It is more like he is lazy with his left to right attitude control. It is sort of like with a lazy eye, it wanders, but when he wants to use it, it comes back in line. I thought at first he was maybe just trying to orient an eye up looking for food.

It does not appear to be worsening yet. I will hold off on the epsom salts for now. Spinal swelling is a possibility but it is not worsening so it could resolve on it's own. Given some more time some other sign of disease may manifest and provide a clue, or it won't and this is just a weird fish. The new fish will have a few days to settle in before new meds are applied. I will have to decide before going through another round of chloroquine.

 

[Nathan Milender]

For anyone who is curious:

The wrasse is hanging in there. He was anorexic for about 2 weeks and then started recovering. He was pretty skinny for a while. Starting to fattern up and swimming came back to normal. He is almost through another round of chlorquine and continued to be fed metro infused flakes with occasional frozen lrs/Mysis. In with an oscellaris and 2 barnacle blennies. Swimming better and started eating again. After new round of prazi he started having the stringy white poop.

Other than the poop and swimming behavior had no outward signs of disease. I suspect some sort of toxic shock from parasite kill off but I am still not sure. If he continues to improve and poop clears will like go to DT in one more week. The other fish have had no problems.

 

[Sashaka]

For anyone who is curious:

The wrasse is hanging in there. He was anorexic for about 2 weeks and then started recovering. He was pretty skinny for a while. Starting to fattern up and swimming came back to normal. He is almost through another round of chlorquine and continued to be fed metro infused flakes with occasional frozen lrs/Mysis. In with an oscellaris and 2 barnacle blennies. Swimming better and started eating again. After new round of prazi he started having the stringy white poop.

Other than the poop and swimming behavior had no outward signs of disease. I suspect some sort of toxic shock from parasite kill off but I am still not sure. If he continues to improve and poop clears will like go to DT in one more week. The other fish have had no problems.

Yikes! I have to do a better job of reading people's posts more closely! Did the behavior start after dosing the CP? I think many people use copper on wrasses, tangs, puffers, and anthias (maybe a few other species) because these species are not known to handle CP well. I've seen contradictory information on CP uses on these species, but I once forgot about the species specific sensitivities to the drug and dosed some new fish and killed a beautiful little yellow coris wrasse and a tiny hippo tang. Dosage was administered on the low side as it was a prophylactic treatment for pathogens. There were no visible signs of illness. A melenarus wrasse made it through the treatment though. It was a dumb mistake because I knew of the recommendations not to use it on those species. Old age is catching up with me.

 

[Nathan Milender]

Yikes! I have to do a better job of reading people's posts more closely! Did the behavior start after dosing the CP? I think many people use copper on wrasses, tangs, puffers, and anthias (maybe a few other species) because these species are not known to handle CP well. I've seen contradictory information on CP uses on these species, but I once forgot about the species specific sensitivities to the drug and dosed some new fish and killed a beautiful little yellow coris wrasse and a tiny hippo tang. Dosage was administered on the low side as it was a prophylactic treatment for pathogens. There were no visible signs of illness. A melenarus wrasse made it through the treatment though. It was a dumb mistake because I knew of the recommendations not to use it on those species. Old age is catching up with me.

It started 3 weeks after the chlorquine was started. It really started closer to the onset of prazi. I did see that many flashers have sensitivity but the flashers did not seem to be included in that group. I always think this information is a little sketchy. Regardless. I just left it in for a second round of QT including the same meds and it appears to have resolved. I really do not know what happened. Good now in spite of being in chlorquine and prazi.