Wrasse lethargic and has a broken dorsal tip

[GHsaltie]

Ok guys I need your help and input. I wasn't sure if this is the right spot but I'm super worried about my little wrasse buddy. A bit of history first, I received the fish from divers den on the 28th of last month and started ttm. He did very well through all of it and was pigging out on both mysis and flakes. On the 14th I started the first round of prazipro, he stressed at first but quickly recovered and was doing great again. The 19th was the second round of Prazi and on the same day I noticed two things. The first was that he had white stringy poo (I hadn't seen him poop until that point) to which I assumed he had internal parasites. The second thing was that I saw the spike thing on his dorsal fin (terminal phase McCosker wrasse) looked to be broken midway up. I wasn't sure if it would cause any problems so I decided to keep an eye on him and not treat with antibiotics being that he is already being treated with Prazi. The following day I also started soaking his food in metroplex and focus for the parasites. So pretty much right away I noticed he hated the taste of metroplex, he ate not even half the normal amount of food. Yesterday he ate maybe a bite or two in each meal, this morning he refused all food and I noticed he stayed near the bottom of the tank rather than swimming around like he normally does. I had to leave for work at that point but when I came back this evening he was laying in the bottom corner with his stress pattern going full blown. I didn't soak his food for the evening meal because I think he's getting a little overwhelmed with everything, but he only took one bite and went back to his corner. Now his dorsal spike has me worried also because I can't tell if it's going to get better or if it's infected, which if that's the case should I treat him with kanaplex (that's the only antibiotic I have) or continue monitoring? Im really paranoid about doing too much at once because he's been doing so well up until I started the metro and he messed up his dorsal spike. So props to anyone who read that whole novel and throw whatever advise, opinions, questions you have at me!
P.S. His name is Nessy, short for Nessian the 3rd, and I really love this guy already. I want to do everything I can to keep him well.

 

[GHsaltie]

Oh I also have methylene blue, so that and kanaplex

 

[melypr1985]

I think you did the right thing with the metro. The dorsal fin looks fine to me (not infected) so I wouldn't make that a priority. I figure you can dose the metro in the tank to clear up the intestinal worms since he stopped eating for you. Though you make just take all meds from the tank and see if you can get him eating again before moving on to anything else. It would normally take a week or two to get rid of the intestinal worms so I dont think you've licked that just yet.

 

[GHsaltie]

I think that's going to be my course of action. Tuesday I'm going to do a big water change on the QT and it's the last day of Prazi so I'll probably run some carbon for a about a week and getting him eating good before I try treating with the metro again. I had wanted to treat with the food but I'll probably have to dose the tank instead since he had such an aversion to the soaked food.

 

[melypr1985]

I think that's going to be my course of action. Tuesday I'm going to do a big water change on the QT and it's the last day of Prazi so I'll probably run some carbon for a about a week and getting him eating good before I try treating with the metro again. I had wanted to treat with the food but I'll probably have to dose the tank instead since he had such an aversion to the soaked food.

When you say last day for prazi.... how are you dosing it? It's only dose twice a week apart with a water change in between. It's not a constant thing. It's only active in the water for like 48 hours I believe and does it's magic in the first 24. I think it's just the wording throwing me off, but I wanted to be sure of how the treatment was being administered.

 

[Humblefish]

So pretty much right away I noticed he hated the taste of metroplex, he ate not even half the normal amount of food.

Are you using Seachem Focus to bind the medication to the food? Focus will also make the medication more palatable.

 

[GHsaltie]

Are you using Seachem Focus to bind the medication to the food? Focus will also make the medication more palatable.

Yes I was using focus to bind it and considered grabbing some garlic or something to add to it but he completely stopped eating so i decided it would be better to stop treating metro through the food.

When you say last day for prazi.... how are you dosing it? It's only dose twice a week apart with a water change in between. It's not a constant thing. It's only active in the water for like 48 hours I believe and does it's magic in the first 24. I think it's just the wording throwing me off, but I wanted to be sure of how the treatment was being administered.

I was going by the directions on the bottle which says to dose the tank every 5-7 days and not more than 3-5 days for two treatments, with a large water change in-between. If I had known that it was 48hr I would have done it a lot differently.

 

[Humblefish]

Yes I was using focus to bind it and considered grabbing some garlic or something to add to it but he completely stopped eating so i decided it would be better to stop treating metro through the food.

If he's stopped eating, you're left with no choice but to dose metro in the QT every 48 hours.

 

[GHsaltie]

Yeah that's the conclusion I've come to. He ate a lot more this morning thankfully and he's started swimming around again. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and start treating the QT with the metro or wait a couple more days for him to eat better and for his dorsal spike to resolve itself. I'm so paranoid about overwhelming him with a bunch of stuff at once.

 

[Humblefish]

Yeah that's the conclusion I've come to. He ate a lot more this morning thankfully and he's started swimming around again. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and start treating the QT with the metro or wait a couple more days for him to eat better and for his dorsal spike to resolve itself. I'm so paranoid about overwhelming him with a bunch of stuff at once.

Are you still seeing stringy white poop? Dosing metro into the water should have minimal side effects.

 

[GHsaltie]

I haven't seen him poop since Thursday, so I don't know if it's still white and stringy or not. Granted most of the time I'm working late morning-evening so by the time I get home he's getting ready to bed himself down. But today I was off from work and I was in the room that the QT is in and I still didn't see him poop at all. Is that normal?

 

[Humblefish]

Is that normal?

Normal for a fish that has stopped eating.