New fairy wrasse covered in ich, and won't eat

[trmiv]

So Saturday I purchased a fairy wrasse for my 90. I'm not sure of the species, and the LFS wasn't completely sure. It almost looks like a small lineatus, but it's not. He was very healthy looking at the LFS, the best looking of any of these wrasses they had. No fish in any of the tanks were sick.

Anyway, I acclimated him yesterday into my quarantine tank. Of course he hid immediately like all wrasse do. I was able to get him to eat a little mysis on Saturday. Today I come home and he's still hiding. I finally located him in some PVC I have on the bottom of the quarantine tank, shine a light in there and see he's covered in ich. Great. Anyway, I'm about to start hyposalinity on him. The problem is, he will not eat at all. I'm worried he's too far into it for the treatment to be effective, and not eating is not going to help. Any suggestions for what I should do? I know if I can't get this guy eating he's a goner.

 

[Sk8r]

Anything approximating live food or even live brine---they're not that nutritious, but they do stimulate appetite.

 

[trmiv]

That might be tough, I don't know many places that carry live brine anymore around here. I think some places around here sell Tigger Pods and Arcti-pods from Reef Nutrition, maybe I'll look for that.

 

[Sk8r]

Those might well do it.

 

[Freed]

Plus, make sure you are moving very slowly around the tank he is in. This will keep his focus away from what you are doing and then he may be more likely to concentrate on the food instead of what you are doing. This worked for my CBB when I had him in QT. Also try some frozen brine. That's the only thing my CBB would eat for the first week. He was hesitant at first but he finally took to it. Then you can move up to mysis. Try black worms as well. My CBB can't get enough of those.

 

[trmiv]

I've pretty much been feeding him and then going away from the tank to watch TV. But when I go and check awhile later, the food hasn't been touched. He did eat that second day though, and that was with me standing next to the tank.

 

[trmiv]

I think he's pretty much a goner. This morning he's inside a PVC tube laying on his side, breathing fast.

 

[Sk8r]

So sorry to hear that.

 

[trmiv]

Much to my amazement, he's still alive. I see no visible ich on his body now, and his breathing has slowed. He's still inside the PVC, but not at the odd angle he was at earlier. I put some arcti-pods (dead pods), and some tigger pods (live) in the tank. He hasn't come out to eat them, but I'm leaving him alone and hoping he eats some. I'm amazed after the condition he was in last night and this morning that he's made it this far.

 

[trmiv]

Another update. He's out and swimming around tank, exploring around, and eating. I got him eating arcti-pods and tigger pods. The salinity in the tank is down to 1.012 with the final freshwater change coming tonight to get the tank to the hyposalinity level of 1.009. I'm amazed he made it this far, this fish was COVERED in ich, and unable to swim, sitting on the bottom of the tank sideways and often just blowing in the current unable to control his movements. Now he's looking healthy, swimming and eating. Hopefully 6-8 weeks from now he'll be a happy resident of my 90.