help i think my wrasse is dying

D

dixonstanley50

Reefing newb
hello, we got a yellow wrasse about a week ago and he has been great ever since, but this morning he is just laying on the bottom, he goes for a little swim if someone goes near the tank then straight back to the bottom and laying on his side. Tested the water and ammonia and trites are zero and trates 10-20 all other fish are fine and crabs. he also appears to be breathing rapidlly. does anyone know what, if anything i can do,
thanks
 
+1 on the oxeygen defficiency. Point a couple of powerheads at the surface of the water to try and increase the flow.

There are different dependencies for wrasses. Could he not be getting the food he requires?
 
im pretty sure its not oxygen defficiency, we have a skimmer going full time and ph is right around 8 hard to tell exactly. he was star ting to get a little better today out swimming around and pecking at stuff, but this evening he was back lying on the bottom again and now hes sleeping under the sand. also we noticed a turbo snail had died to although he was not to stinky so i dont think he caused a spike are wrasses very sensitive to nitrates? I also heard they are prone to parasites could this be a parasitic problem?
 
The micro bubbles from your skimmer aren't going to help much oxygenating the water.

Some of it might be the tank size. It says 50 gallons on liveaquaria and if he's large you shouldn't be push the tank requirements. It also says they bury themselves in the sand when stressed.

If a snail died then chances are you have another problem. Are you sure all your tests are accurate?
 
They burrow in the sand when stressed, spooked, or sleeping so that wouldn't matter.
It's very possible that the fish could have parasites. There's a pellet food out there (I can't remember the name) that has prazipro in it. You could try that and see if it helps. I agree I don't think it oxygenation either since your other fish have never and aren't having problems now.
 
so this morning he is just laying on the bottom still, will come out for short quick swims then back to the bottom. we also notice his gills appear darker and still rapid breathing. I think if it was water quality one of the other fish would be showing signs by now. so if i can find the food with prazipro in it would that be a good way to start? this is our first sick fish i just wish i could diagnose him!!
 
wouldn't a lower pH cause problems? you said your pH was around 8... mine's usually at 8.3-8.4 for a normal tank? or is that just on the coral end... what type of wrasse is it and did you acclimate him? w
 
well thanks for all the help for my little guy! hes still hanging in there this morning, although still not showing much sign of improvement i will try to get a video on here, maybe someone could diagnose him with that!!
 
I'm just gonna throw this out there. Are you sure you don't have any stray voltage? Some fish are more sensitive to this than others. Even if your tank is grounded, if there is a minor voltage leak your still creating a path for current to flow through the tank. A major short should trip a GFI (if you don't have too many powerstrips in series), but not a small leak or combination off. I occasionaly remove my ground probe and do the old hand test. I also use a multi-meter and check the tank voltage. If you've ruled everything else out except for some unknown parasite I'd consider this.
 
thanks irensing!!! sure enough i checked the voltage and it was anywhere from 15 to 23 volts not sure if that is a lot but i fixed it and it can only help. any ideas on symptoms of stray voltage on fish?
 
I'm curious to see if the fish gets better. I actually don't think 15-23 volts is too bad. Was it one particluar device that was giving you a problem? If so, what was it? Usually, all your devices will leak a few volts and add up. Also, I would check the voltage with the lights off. My light fixture must have been poorly designed because the EMI is horrible. I can't tell if it induces voltage in my tank or not but it definately reads on my volt-meter. I just don't know if it's true. What's even crazier is that I can read 60KHz and 100Khz in from my tank water to ground with 2 differrent light fixtures which are the switching frequencies of the power supplies. I wonder how the EMI from our power supplies may affect fish. Anyway, I can't really speak too much about which fish are more sensitive than others. Snappers for examples have very sensitive lateral lines and and mine used to go crazy when I messed with my various electrical devices attached to the tank. I'm not sure about wrasses.
 
well i hope he pulls through it looks to me like something is driving him insane he hides half in the sand then comes out and scratches and swims erraticially then goes back in the sand and he does this all day and he will eat if he can get some food when hes out!! im thinking it might still be parasites but all the treatments i read about say the fish must be in reasonable condition to start treatment
 
well make sure you put the ground probe back in the tank and hopefully he pulls through. i don't know if a freshwater (or chemical) dip should be considered. it usually stresses the crap out of the fish though. gonna have to keep your fingers cross on this one.
 

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