Possible wrasse spinal injury?

[Badsn8k]

Hello fellow Reefers! I’m trying my hardest to figure out what happened to my Pink margin wrasse.. I bought her about 3 weeks ago, then maybe 3 days later had a horrible diatom breakout.. she was swimming and eating just fine.. I did a 3 day blackout while trying to raise my nutrient level. Day two of the blackout, I found her in my overflow when i was going to feed. Was able to gently net her and put her in the display tank. The 4th day when the lights came back she was just floating around getting pushed around by the current. I have since took her out of my 90g and put her in an acclimation box in my biocube. I hand feed her in the am and pm. She has been pretty much in this state for over a week now. I’m half suspecting my blue eyed tang was harassing her and she tried to Jump. I don’t want to euthanize her f there is a chance of recovery… I do have some clove oil in the event I have to. Thoughts?

 

[Impala67]

Hello fellow Reefers! I’m trying my hardest to figure out what happened to my Pink margin wrasse.. I bought her about 3 weeks ago, then maybe 3 days later had a horrible diatom breakout.. she was swimming and eating just fine.. I did a 3 day blackout while trying to raise my nutrient level. Day two of the blackout, I found her in my overflow when i was going to feed. Was able to gently net her and put her in the display tank. The 4th day when the lights came back she was just floating around getting pushed around by the current. I have since took her out of my 90g and put her in an acclimation box in my biocube. I hand feed her in the am and pm. She has been pretty much in this state for over a week now. I’m half suspecting my blue eyed tang was harassing her and she tried to Jump. I don’t want to euthanize her f there is a chance of recovery… I do have some clove oil in the event I have to. Thoughts?

More than likely a head trauma, she probably banged it in the side of the tank due to being chased. They scare very easy. I’m sorry to say they don’t usually make it but I could be very wrong I would give her another day or two but your best bet is to use that clove oil!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello fellow Reefers! I’m trying my hardest to figure out what happened to my Pink margin wrasse.. I bought her about 3 weeks ago, then maybe 3 days later had a horrible diatom breakout.. she was swimming and eating just fine.. I did a 3 day blackout while trying to raise my nutrient level. Day two of the blackout, I found her in my overflow when i was going to feed. Was able to gently net her and put her in the display tank. The 4th day when the lights came back she was just floating around getting pushed around by the current. I have since took her out of my 90g and put her in an acclimation box in my biocube. I hand feed her in the am and pm. She has been pretty much in this state for over a week now. I’m half suspecting my blue eyed tang was harassing her and she tried to Jump. I don’t want to euthanize her f there is a chance of recovery… I do have some clove oil in the event I have to. Thoughts?

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I see this issue fairly often with newly acquired wrasse here. The symptoms are always the same - seemingly some sort of spinal injury, but the fish will still feed (sometimes needing to be hand fed). The key is the continued feeding - almost every infection will cause a fish to stop feeding once it gets sick enough.

It really isn’t likely that these issues are caused by physical trauma, they never show any external damage.

Ive not heard of any of these fish surviving, sorry.

I posted on a public aquarium board tonight to see if anyone has any updates on a possible cause, nothing yet other than another person has seen this and also has not been able to cure it.

Jay

 

[Badsn8k]

Thank you for the replies! I figure I will give her through the weekend and see if there is any improvement, then on to the clove oil if not. Looking forward to becoming an active member!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I heard back from a couple of fellow curators - one of them thinks this is barotrauma from the fish having been collected in fairly deep water. I don't think that is the case, as these affected wrasses do not show any tendency to float or sink more than usual. Also, the cases I've seen began after a week or two of normal behavior, and I would think that gas bladder issues would show from day one. The other curator just said they have pretty much stopped acquiring fish from this group due to poor longevity.

So - I still think this is a neurological disease, but cannot 100% rule out a strike injury (mostly because I can't prove it is an infection, nor disprove that it is an injury).

Jay

 

[Badsn8k]

3/17 update . So I haven’t been able to bring myself to use the clove oil yet since she is still eating fairly well. She is trying to swim but immediately floats to the surface. So I’m starting to think this is more swim bladder related. I attached a video. Thoughts? This just baffles me.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, this is clearly a swim bladder issue, it may be combined with other issues, but the fish is positively buoyant. For years, I tried removing the excess gas using a tiny syringe, but in every case, it came back. I even developed a pressure chamber to put the fish in. That would alleviate the symptoms, but once I reduced the pressure, the fish would float again.

Jay