Wrasse Eye Issues

[new2u]

Hi All

I recently upgraded tanks from a 120 to a 200 and in the process my Melanarus got pretty stressed and ended up going into hiding for a while (didn't see him for at least a week).

He re-appeared about a month ago briefly, as I was adding in some new fish (Purple Tang, Yellow Tang and Copperband). They were from an established reef but I really should have QT'd them first. Long story short I didnt.

There was some aggression between the PT and my magnificent foxface, so i turned off the lights for a few days and it resolved the issue. I proceeded not to see my melanarus again for about 3 weeks after that.

He then re-appeared this week but one of his eyes appears cloudy, and hes not reacting to food. I first suspected that I had damaged him while I was re-aquascaping but now I am worried he may have flukes. I don't want him to be a typhoid mary for the rest of my inhabitants.

He is swimming around actively today and I was able to get some pics for comparison. Image 6015 is his bad eye, and 6016 is his good eye for comparison

Any ideas for next steps? Can i confirm flukes via a freshwater dip?

 

[DgenR8]

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[new2u]

Thank you dgen for the move.

He has been actively swimming around all day but is barely eating. I know he hunts snails at night because I re-flip all the empty shells every morning.

My initial suspension is that I injured him aquascaping (I jammed a rock down pretty much on top of him in the sand) or in the move process. I cannot tell if he has lost vision in that eye or not but his other one looks good. I am preparing to do a fresh water dip tomorrow or Sunday. Unfortunately I have had another emergency come up and I won't be able to do anything this evening.

If it is indeed full blown flakes I am worried for my other inhabitants, I have some prezi on hand but I've always been too paranoid to treat my main tank. Are there harmful rammifications if I soak their food with it?

I am looking into food soaking techniques, as it seems like a good measure to help all around in-case it is the problem.

 

[Jdub968]

Yes a fw dip would be the first step however prazipro is safe in the DT and I have heard of people doing a general cure food soak with focus and feeding it but quite honestly if you can catch him to do a fw dip just put him in a qt and then it will be much easier to treat. From the pic the eye dosent look swollen but if it does swell you can also use Epsom salt to help relieve the swelling dosed at 1-3 tbs per 5 gal of water in a qt

 

[R1ant04]

Any updates?

 

[new2u]

So we did the fresh water dip, and he seemed to improve slightly. I couldn't find any actual flukes in the water, but I did do the full 6 minutes. He

He still doesn't come out to eat. I put about 100 cerith/nassarius snails a few weeks in that he could graze on to eat. He comes out every once and a while now, and still doesn't look great.

I think that his head or eyes were injured in the tank move, and he may be having a tough time recovering. He was swimming around today and i trapped him in a smaller pen I use to catch anenomes and tried to get him some food. He wouldn't eat, and I nearly went ahead and put him out of his misery, but I noticed that his eyes were looking better and he has been with me for years and I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I re-released him in the tank and am keeping a close eye on him. I'm pretty positive its not flukes or anything infectious now. I did get a shot of him hiding on the ground before he was going to bury and he looks pretty pathetic.

Any thoughts on next steps? Should I go ahead and find a way to euthinize him?

 

[Jdub968]

If here my fish I would just let him be and see if he recovers, as long as there's no signs of parasites or bacterial infections I would observe. Try some fish eggs or garlic soaked food see if it entices him

 

[JustinM]

They looked too round to be flukes. Have you tried epsom salt? It usually helps with eye injuries.