Small wrasses not surviving quarantine - help please!

[watasenia]

For the past few months I've been trying to get various wrasse in stock (six-lined, leopard, possum, exquisite fairy). Unfortunately, out of nearly 20 fish, not a single one of them has made it through the quarantine process alive.

I have several 12g quarantine tanks, treated with cupramine and prazi, kept hypo. Cupramine and salinity are slowly increased over time. Fish are acclimated over a period of hours, depending on the salinity of the water they arrive in. None of them seem to be dying of aggression or starvation, but the ones that don't die in the first few days eventually wind up belly up at the bottom of the tank and die not long after.

I've gotten other fish in, including larger wrasse (red coris and melanaurus), and the majority of them survive the process, but the small wrasse are becoming a huge money sink. I would love to have at least a possum wrasse for my reef tank but at this point it's looking like that's not an option.

If anyone could give me some advice, maybe share their experience with quarantining small wrasse, I would really appreciate it, thanks!

 

[DDon]

Sorry about all the issues you are having. I can't really comment on the process you are using as I did not have success using hypo so abandoned it and out of personal preference don't use copper unless I need to for velvet, which I haven't needed to yet (knock on wood).

For all fish I use tank transfer method and dose prazipro on the second and fourth transfer. With wrasses I am careful with the dosage of prazipro (no overdose). This is followed by 3 to 4 weeks of observation in QT.
I match the first tank they go into to the salinity of the water I receive the fish in and just temperature acclimate. This way I can take my time raising salinity to match my display.
I completed QT of an ornate leopard, line spot flasher and melanaurus a week and a half ago and previous to that a McCoskers flasher and a 6 line (which I got rid of) with no issues.
Just my experience if it helps at all. I wish you luck in the future.

 

[albano]

Forget about the 6line, they are a PITA....I have over 40 wrasses in my 450g DT ...I put them in QT, and watch them...no meds, just make sure they're healthy and eating....after a few weeks, they go into DT ... Rarely any problem

 

[Deinonych]

For all fish I use tank transfer method and dose prazipro on the second and fourth transfer. With wrasses I am careful with the dosage of prazipro (no overdose). This is followed by 3 to 4 weeks of observation in QT.
I match the first tank they go into to the salinity of the water I receive the fish in and just temperature acclimate. This way I can take my time raising salinity to match my display.

+1

Wrasses seem to be hit or miss when it comes to medication. I had several losses using chloroquine phosphate for prophylactic treatment for Cryptocaryon. Now that I've switched to TTM, no more losses.

 

[snorvich]

Five weeks of QT, ideally including TT followed by observation, should be a positive result.