Yellow-Flanked Wrasse...Injured, drunk, or weird?

[CroMag676]

Hello reefers,

I have a Yellow-Flanked fairy wrasse that is behaving strangely. It swims vertically, much of the time, occasionally bouncing its tail off the substrate. (See video) It started doing this about a week after I got him. He has been in my tank for about 3-4 weeks. He eats well and has no rivals in the tank. He also flattens out to a more normal stance when he wants to go fast. His behavior doesn’t look right but this is my first Yellow-Flanked. Thoughts?



My tank has been up for about two months. It is 90 gallons and shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 7.96 Ph, 35 ppm, and 89 degrees. Calcium is 440 and DKH is 7.6. Other tank inhabitants include 2 x cleaner shrimp, 2 x nassarius snails, 1 x Lubbock’s wrasse, 1 x cleaner wrasse, 4 x firefish, and 1 x starry blenny.

 

[MnFish1]

I would check out this link. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

Otherwise - you can look in my signature - to determine what other questions may help us help you

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello reefers,

I have a Yellow-Flanked fairy wrasse that is behaving strangely. It swims vertically, much of the time, occasionally bouncing its tail off the substrate. (See video) It started doing this about a week after I got him. He has been in my tank for about 3-4 weeks. He eats well and has no rivals in the tank. He also flattens out to a more normal stance when he wants to go fast. His behavior doesn’t look right but this is my first Yellow-Flanked. Thoughts?



My tank has been up for about two months. It is 90 gallons and shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 7.96 Ph, 35 ppm, and 89 degrees. Calcium is 440 and DKH is 7.6. Other tank inhabitants include 2 x cleaner shrimp, 2 x nassarius snails, 1 x Lubbock’s wrasse, 1 x cleaner wrasse, 4 x firefish, and 1 x starry blenny.

I have a bad feeling on this fish as it appears to be UNWD which is a nuerological disease affecting wrasses in which they show no signs of distress or injury and unable to swim normally with their tails down or often showing a bent appearance. They display an attemp to eat but struggle to do so resulting in continued deterioration.
learning this from @Jay Hemdal , there is no known cure for this and results are less than positive

 

[CroMag676]

I would check out this link. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

Otherwise - you can look in my signature - to determine what other questions may help us help you

Thanks for the help. It defiantly has the hallmarks of UNWD. Jay’s initial post mentions that it is not Highly contagious; this implies that there is a possibility of contagion. Given that, is it recommended to go ahead and remove the wrasse for the sake of others or just let him be?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the help. It defiantly has the hallmarks of UNWD. Jay’s initial post mentions that it is not Highly contagious; this implies that there is a possibility of contagion. Given that, is it recommended to go ahead and remove the wrasse for the sake of others or just let him be?

I’d let him be but if it gets to the point of being on death row- you have to make the call

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the help. It defiantly has the hallmarks of UNWD. Jay’s initial post mentions that it is not Highly contagious; this implies that there is a possibility of contagion. Given that, is it recommended to go ahead and remove the wrasse for the sake of others or just let him be?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Yes, it does look like UNWD, sorry. The continued feeding is the key symptom to tell it from diseases that can cause similar symptoms.
I wouldn’t remove it - the other fish have already been exposed to it. Also, I’ve only seen this in fairy and flasher wrasse and sometimes yellow wrasse. It probably affects more species, but we need more reports. There seems to be some aspect that causes about 5 to 10% of a group of wrasses to show this - according to a few reports I have of public aquariums who have gotten groups of wrasses at one time.
Your fish looks really good - I keep hoping some of these fish will recover, maybe yours will!
Jay

 

[CroMag676]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Yes, it does look like UNWD, sorry. The continued feeding is the key symptom to tell it from diseases that can cause similar symptoms.
I wouldn’t remove it - the other fish have already been exposed to it. Also, I’ve only seen this in fairy and flasher wrasse and sometimes yellow wrasse. It probably affects more species, but we need more reports. There seems to be some aspect that causes about 5 to 10% of a group of wrasses to show this - according to a few reports I have of public aquariums who have gotten groups of wrasses at one time.
Your fish looks really good - I keep hoping some of these fish will recover, maybe yours will!
Jay

Thank you again, everyone. I really feel bad for this guy, especially since I just ordered dome ladies for him. Additionally, I have some pintails in QT that I was planning on adding to the tank this coming weekend. Should I hold off?

 

[jackyywayne]

Hello reefers,

I have a Yellow-Flanked fairy wrasse that is behaving strangely. It swims vertically, much of the time, occasionally bouncing its tail off the substrate. (See video) It started doing this about a week after I got him. He has been in my tank for about 3-4 weeks. He eats well and has no rivals in the tank. He also flattens out to a more normal stance when he wants to go fast. His behavior doesn’t look right but this is my first Yellow-Flanked. Thoughts?



My tank has been up for about two months. It is 90 gallons and shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 7.96 Ph, 35 ppm, and 89 degrees. Calcium is 440 and DKH is 7.6. Other tank inhabitants include 2 x cleaner shrimp, 2 x nassarius snails, 1 x Lubbock’s wrasse, 1 x cleaner wrasse, 4 x firefish, and 1 x starry blenny.

i'm going to guess he is Just weird

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you again, everyone. I really feel bad for this guy, especially since I just ordered dome ladies for him. Additionally, I have some pintails in QT that I was planning on adding to the tank this coming weekend. Should I hold off?

How long will the pintails be in quarantine and what treatments will you be using?

Jay

 

[CroMag676]

How long will the pintails be in quarantine and what treatments will you be using?

Jay

They are in QT at my LFS until Friday at least. I believe she has them in copper.

 

[brwaldbaum]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Yes, it does look like UNWD, sorry. The continued feeding is the key symptom to tell it from diseases that can cause similar symptoms.
I wouldn’t remove it - the other fish have already been exposed to it. Also, I’ve only seen this in fairy and flasher wrasse and sometimes yellow wrasse. It probably affects more species, but we need more reports. There seems to be some aspect that causes about 5 to 10% of a group of wrasses to show this - according to a few reports I have of public aquariums who have gotten groups of wrasses at one time.
Your fish looks really good - I keep hoping some of these fish will recover, maybe yours will!
Jay

I had a Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura that had something similar. It was fine one day, and the next day it was head up and being blown around the tank. It still tried to feed. It eventually recovered completely.

 

[CroMag676]

I had a Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura that had something similar. It was fine one day, and the next day it was head up and being blown around the tank. It still tried to feed. It eventually recovered completely.

 

[brwaldbaum]

There's always a chance.

 

[pixelhustler]

I had a Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura that had something similar. It was fine one day, and the next day it was head up and being blown around the tank. It still tried to feed. It eventually recovered completely.

How many days did it spend being blown around? I now feel bad euthanized my yellow flanked wrasse. As with yours, one day it was fine, next day it was getting blown around, so I waited until the end of the day to euthanize it. I assumed it was knocking on deaths door, as it’s usually the case when they no longer float, but this disease seems to have a very different timeline.

 

[brwaldbaum]

How many days did it spend being blown around? I now feel bad euthanized my yellow flanked wrasse. As with yours, one day it was fine, next day it was getting blown around, so I waited until the end of the day to euthanize it. I assumed it was knocking on deaths door, as it’s usually the case when they no longer float, but this disease seems to have a very different timeline.

It recovered gradually in about a week.