Disoriented wrasse

[RJT]

I got this fiji exquisite wrasse a little more than 3 weeks ago. He has always been sensitive. When I put him in qt he didn't move for hours. He is always a late morning fish waking up after 10. For the past week I started looking for him in the morning. He sits between some rocks and slowly twists his body and bending it in weird ways like he is in pain. When I feed the tank he comes out to eat, his body seems to have no blemishes nor is he breathing fast. There are other fish in the tank that have none of these symptoms. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and phosphates are 0. PH is 8.2. Temp varies between 78-80. Tank is a 6ft 150.

I am thinking cyanide but hoping someone can chime in and give me some direction.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Some wrasses take a long time to adjust. If his coloration is good and he eats I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[MrTuskfish]

^^^^^I Agree.^^^^^
Also, 3 weeks isn't nearly enough QT time. IMO, 6 weeks is about right. Some parasites can't even go through a whole-life cycle in 3 weeks. Acclimation, like the problem he's having, are easier to overcome in the QT. No harassment, no competitors, etc.

 

[RJT]

Thank you everyone for responding. I do feel a lot better. I sometimes go to the extreme when I see a fish not happy.

I just fed the tank and he ate a lot of mysis, swam around for a few seconds then went back into hiding.

 

[cngreg]

I've just seen a batch of a hundred fairy wrasses come through quarantine with 1 lost to an uncontrolled whirling after about 2 weeks. Necropsy didn't show anything interesting but it was sent to a pathologist for histopathology. I'll let you know if anything in particular comes back. If what you are describing is the same thing, I haven't seen fish bounce back. For it to be progressive after a few weeks makes me think it's something toxic (a buildup of poor blood chemistry from cyanide causing hypoxic liver damage is high on the list) or possibly infectious (theres a group of parasites called myxozoans that can end up in nervous tissue). Cyanide toxicity can be mitigated by methyline blue early ( it disrupts oxygen transport similar to nitrite poisoning) but I don't know if it works weeks later. There aren't treatment myxozoan intraneural parasites that I know of.

 

[cngreg]

Is the fish writhing and twitching or is it slow? It might jsut be a fairy wrasse being a fairy wrasse. They do rest in awkward positions...

 

[RJT]

Thank you cngreg.

He is slowly turning. But that has stopped. Now he just hides in the rocks. Fed tank this morning, he ate around 6 pieces of mysis then went back into rocks. He is just laying there but he looks up when I see him and he swims towards me sometimes. I guess he associates me with food already.

I bought two of them at the same time. The other one is more active. They look identical and I don't notice any hostility. They swim past each other at feeding time.

 

[RJT]

Update: He was out swimming today and he continues to eat. The odd behavior seems to have come from the tang stressing him some. He only does it when the tang goes out of his way to bother him. They were put in tank same time so maybe the tang is keeping his tank mates in check and the wrasse is doing this in response.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Sounds like a normal stressed out wrasse. Keep up the feedings.