Wrasses losing weight in QT

xymox · Mar 2, 2018

Long term lurker here. Hopefully, someone has some insight for me.

I've had a pair of pintails in QT for about 6 weeks now. I did 2 rounds of prazi and fed metro/focus soaked food for 3 weeks. I've now started copper w/CopperSafe and am slowly raising copper to therapeutic levels over the course of 7+ days with 1 dose in the morning and 1 at night (each dose is 2.2ml). Currently, at about 1.0 ppm. Both fish are eating well and active. However, the male has become rather thin. I don't see any white, stringy poo that would indicate internal parasites and yesterday I did see him have a bowel movement that looked pretty normal.

I feed a mix of frozen, selcon soaked food including mysis, cylops, plankton, chopped clams, etc.

The only thing I've noticed is the female has started to become a occasionally nippy, so I assume she's transitioning... I'll be moving one of them to another QT tank this weekend and eventually, re-homing one. However, the male hasn't seemed bothered by it at this point.

The QT tank is 20 gallon with power filter, small power head pointed at the surface, pvc elbows/tubing, and Seachem ammonia alert badge.

Any idea what might be causing the male to lose weight? Should I keep doing copper or should I move him to a clean tank and start another medication? I'm kind of at a loss as I don't see any other obvious signs for what the problem is, and I am starting to get concerned.

Dsnakes · Mar 2, 2018

Welcome to R2R

@Humblefish is one of our resident experts on the QT subject.

Big G · Mar 2, 2018

Welcome to R2R! How often are you feeding them?

HotRocks · Mar 2, 2018

Another thing you can try is multiple very small feedings, 2-3 times a day if that fits your schedule. Remember copper is an appetite suppressant. Along with many of the meds. As long as they continue to eat, I think you'll be ok. I have had fish pretty thin, come out of copper and pig out immediately, getting healthy quick!

Maritimer · Mar 2, 2018

Pintails can be a bit shy - my own (in a QT situation) tends to hang up in the corner.

Have you observed him eating? Would you say he's eating well / as well as the other one?

~Bruce

Humblefish · Mar 2, 2018

^^ Following for answers to the questions above

xymox · Mar 4, 2018

Hi, all. Thanks for the followup.

So, both fish are active, in the open, and readily eat without problem (note, female is now out of the tank). The male tends to hangout in the upper part of the tank. I don't see specifically swimming the current, but he does tend to stay around the power filter which had about 4" drop of water (20 gals of water in 25 gal tank). He wasn't looking very good last night (hanging out in a top corner, head bobbing the surface, rapid breathing), so I went for a 5 min FW dip this morning.

Below, is a short video of him right after the dip in a cup of tank water (he's breathing very heavily here- his breathing normally isn't that heavy) and a picture of the bucket I used for the dip. There seem to be very small white dots floating on the surface that are visible with the flashlight, so I'm thinking it might flukes or prazi resistant flukes. I circled the white dots on the bucket picture (real hard to take a decent picture). He did eat shortly after I got him back into the QT tank after the dip. Him eating has never been an issue.

Bucket after FW dip (I washed the bucket out several time before doing the dip- hopefully, the dots aren't just residual dust).

Video right after FW dip in a cup of tank water

What's the best course of action at this point? Do flukes seem likely? If so, should I do hypo or another round of prazi? I can get him into a clean QT without copper today.

Thanks for your help.

PGT253 · Mar 4, 2018

In my humble opinion, if you only have 2 wrasses & and want to treat for ich, it's better to do TTM in 5 gallon buckets. It's quicker & less stressful than copper. And ammonia will not be a problem if you add a litte bit of Prime/the likes at the 12hrs/24hrs mark. 3 buckets, 2/3 small heaters, a couple of piece airline tubings & air stones will do the job.

xymox · Mar 4, 2018

PGT253 said:
In my humble opinion, if you only have 2 wrasses & and want to treat for ich, it's better to do TTM in 5 gallon buckets. It's quicker & less stressful than copper. And ammonia will not be a problem if you add a litte bit of Prime/the likes at the 12hrs/24hrs mark. 3 buckets, 2/3 small heaters, a couple of piece airline tubings & air stones will do the job.

Yea, I've done TTM before with smaller fish before. I opted for copper this time because my schedule right now isn't very forgiving (TTM is pretty labor intensive). That's also why I'm using Copper Safe and have been slowly raising copper levels. However, I don't think copper itself is the problem here- the fish have been eating like pigs. There seems to be some sort of gill infection or maybe internal infection that's causing him to lose weight.