Fairy Wrasse, Still in the Bag- Filter Floss/mucus like Substance??

[SIR PATRICK]

I have baught a few fairy wrasses in the past, and have noticed a strange occurance.....

Every fish I have gotten that never made it the first couple days have had one thing in common-

I get the fish in a clean bag, in clean water. I get them home and float them a while, for temp aclimation. After a while, I check on them, and have found this stuff in the bag. Looks like a small ball of loose filter floss, possibly similar to mucus. Not a ton of it, but a ball the size of a good hunk of pocket lint.

Is this common? Do stressed out/dying fairy wrasse expell something similar to this, before they die? I have found this substance in 4 bags so far, of acclimating wrasse that did not live. All the sucesfully kept wrasses never had anything like this in their bag.

Any info would be apreciated.

 

[prop-frags]

Fairy wrasses sleep in a coccoon of mucous. Without seeing a picture, that is probably what you are seeing. You should think about using the Drip Acclimation Method instead of the Float Method as it is less stressful on the fish.

just my .02 cents.

 

[reefjunkie42]

ok well Ill give you an example..Today I dropped my Male pyle fairy from about 6 feet while transfering him to another tank..What an Idiot i know i was kicking myself. Anyway he started to secrete a mucus from his gills. He is fine tonight and we will see in the morning. Also depending on how long he was in the bag, he might have been spinning his cocoon to sleep in like frags said. He should be alright..what did you get by the way?

 

[SIR PATRICK]

I never knew fairy wrasse slept in cocoons. Thx for the info. I knew the 6 line did, but didnt realize others did too.

The most recent one was a blue sided wrasse, but have had the same experiance with McKoskers and a couple other similar wrasse.

As soon as I saw that substance this time, I had a feeling the blue sided wrasse wouldnt make it. Dont know if its dead or alive, but havnt seen it in 3 days.

 

[reefjunkie42]

how large is your tank?

flashers sleep in cocoons too.

 

[pacislandaqua]

all fairies/flashers a mucus cocoon for one reason - protection! This masks their small to night time predators!

The mucus is in the bags after you receive them because they were sleeping (closed box is very dark!)

They do this every night. If they dont, then there is a problem. I dont see how this relates to them dying though?? the floating method is very outdated and causes more stress then needed.

 

[tfrechette]

drip is the alternative to float? Don't you float them for temperature and then drip?

 

[reefjunkie42]

i float for like 10 min, then into the 5 gal and drip acclimate using 1/4 tubing and a fine tune drip. i do it from 20-40. no issues ever using this method.

 

[prop-frags]

drip is the alternative to float? Don't you float them for temperature and then drip?

Yes, floating is part of the process. I follow Live Aquaria's guidelines on the Drip Method.

 

[pacislandaqua]

I never float anything. There really isn't any need for it. As long as the room is a stable temperature, then it doesn't matter if you are drip acclimating for 1-2 hours. Try it out, by the time you are done, the water in the bucket will be the same as the temp