Silver Belly Wrasse Not Doing Well

[Mark Goode]

Morning all,

I have a silver belly wrasse that I think is in trouble. I bought him about a week ago, and he looked healthy in the shop. When he finally emerged from the sand a couple of days later, I noticed he wasn't fully closing his mouth. I saw him peck at a couple of pods, but he spit at least one of them out. In the days since he's developed a lump between his eyes and there the skin is turning brown(ish)

Introducing him to the tank was difficult. I tested the sg of the bag water and it was 1.015, whereas my tank water is 1.024. I did a steady drip/flow acclimation (as best I could) to bring up the sg (I have no second tank), which took about 8 hours. During this time he was in a bowl in the sump, in the dark, so temp was maintained. If this is bacterial (as I suspect) I've got a problem: no animal antibiotics in the UK unless prescribed by a vet. I'd be willing to take him to a vet, but I'd never get him out of the tank. At least not until he's probably too far gone to help.

Nitrate is at about 7 and phos about 0.1. Salinity 1.024 and temperature, in the current heatwave, 78.5. PH around 8.1 according to Apex. MG 1350, and I can't remember the other two (no cause for concern because I didn't write them down). Tank is RS 525 at 100g. No aggression seen.

Thanks.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Morning all,

I have a silver belly wrasse that I think is in trouble. I bought him about a week ago, and he looked healthy in the shop. When he finally emerged from the sand a couple of days later, I noticed he wasn't fully closing his mouth. I saw him peck at a couple of pods, but he spit at least one of them out. In the days since he's developed a lump between his eyes and there the skin is turning brown(ish)

Introducing him to the tank was difficult. I tested the sg of the bag water and it was 1.015, whereas my tank water is 1.024. I did a steady drip/flow acclimation (as best I could) to bring up the sg (I have no second tank), which took about 8 hours. During this time he was in a bowl in the sump, in the dark, so temp was maintained. If this is bacterial (as I suspect) I've got a problem: no animal antibiotics in the UK unless prescribed by a vet. I'd be willing to take him to a vet, but I'd never get him out of the tank. At least not until he's probably too far gone to help.

Nitrate is at about 7 and phos about 0.1. Salinity 1.024 and temperature, in the current heatwave, 78.5. PH around 8.1 according to Apex. MG 1350, and I can't remember the other two (no cause for concern because I didn't write them down). Tank is RS 525 at 100g. No aggression seen.

Thanks.

Do you know - did the shop have trouble netting this fish up for you? This has all the hallmarks of a fish that ran into something while a person was chasing it trying to catch it.

While the acclimation issue isn't likely to be causing issues after a week, it certainly didn't help. Did you aerate the container during the 8 hour acclimation? If not, the fish may be suffering from hypoxia. I wish pet stores would end this practice of holding fish at low salinity. 1.015 is NOT low enough to cure any diseases, but it makes it difficult to impossible to acclimate those fish back up to full strength seawater without using an intermediate tank and taking 3 to 5 days to do it.

Here is my article on acclimation:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Mark Goode]

Do you know - did the shop have trouble netting this fish up for you? This has all the hallmarks of a fish that ran into something while a person was chasing it trying to catch it.

While the acclimation issue isn't likely to be causing issues after a week, it certainly didn't help. Did you aerate the container during the 8 hour acclimation? If not, the fish may be suffering from hypoxia. I wish pet stores would end this practice of holding fish at low salinity. 1.015 is NOT low enough to cure any diseases, but it makes it difficult to impossible to acclimate those fish back up to full strength seawater without using an intermediate tank and taking 3 to 5 days to do it.

Here is my article on acclimation:

Acclimation Methods

Acclimating Animals to Aquariums Jay F. Hemdal c.2020 Introduction to acclimation techniques Most beginning aquarists hear that they must “acclimate” any new animals they add to their aquarium. Acclimation (sometimes termed...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Thanks Jay. I didn't see the fish being caught, I was discussing lights with another shop employee at the time. What you say makes sense though (I'll watch in future). So it's just a case of wait and see? The fish had decent body mass, and looked healthy enough. He may have time to heal (if healing is possible) before he starves. This does not make me feel good.

I did not aerate the water, I confess I didn't think of that. It was in a fairly wide bowl, so plenty of surface area. Dunno. It won't happen again because I won't be going back. Because of the salinity, not the wrasse having a bump.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks Jay. I didn't see the fish being caught, I was discussing lights with another shop employee at the time. What you say makes sense though (I'll watch in future). So it's just a case of wait and see? The fish had decent body mass, and looked healthy enough. He may have time to heal (if healing is possible) before he starves. This does not make me feel good.

I did not aerate the water, I confess I didn't think of that. It was in a fairly wide bowl, so plenty of surface area. Dunno. It won't happen again because I won't be going back. Because of the salinity, not the wrasse having a bump.

Sorry, I cannot think of anything to try on this fish other than supportive care. Keep trying to feed it smaller food items.

Jay

 

[Mark Goode]

The little fella didn't make it.

I think those silver bellies are lovely little fish. I wanted one since I set up my tank, and set it up with a deep sand bed with them in mind. I waited over a year, until my tank hand a good population of assorted crawlies, before I bought one. And the poor little devil lasted a week. Do you guys ever feel you're in the wrong hobby?

 

[ErikVR]

The little fella didn't make it.

I think those silver bellies are lovely little fish. I wanted one since I set up my tank, and set it up with a deep sand bed with them in mind. I waited over a year, until my tank hand a good population of assorted crawlies, before I bought one. And the poor little devil lasted a week. Do you guys ever feel you're in the wrong hobby?

Poor guy. I hate it when fish die so soon after bringing them home.

And about being in the wrong hobby... I feel your pain. I've only been in this hobby for 8 months (excluding 20 years of freshwater experience) but I've already lost 5 fish. One was definitely my fault (jumper) but with the the others I know for sure that I didn't do anything wrong. What gives me hope is that I haven't lost a fish after switching to a different vendor. I found a local store that is actually willing to custom order what I want and keep them quarantined for 3 weeks. Sure, I pay a little extra. But losing fish is more expensive and I don't like pets dying while they are in my care.

 

[Nano_Man]

It’s hard at times the hobby takes you to highs and lows. We all go through them . You just got to put it behind you and carry on and
eventually you will succeed with a lovely reef
The secret in this game don’t give up even if you have to step back for a couple of days . This is a amazing hobby when things go right but sometimes things go wrong . This fish damage could of been nothing you did wrong as Jay says the damage could of been done when netted at your LFS . I have watched people netting fish and sometimes you feel like taking the net off them the fish is that stressed with them having trouble netting the fish . I have seen tangs on this forum with damaged mouths due to damage through netting at the shop . Keep your chin up and keep looking forward.