Wrasse Problems; anomalous loss, blindness     RMF's go       10/19/15
I have an 80 gallon reef tank which is home to several corals and juvenile fish. It has been set up for 10 months and has had good stable water parameters for quite awhile. Our LFS comes once per month to do a deep clean and spot check all three saltwater tanks we have in the house. I do a 10% water change in this tank every week. Water param.s this weekend were
0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 8.2 pH, between 0-5 nitrate, salinity 1.024 and temp 77 degrees F. Prior to doing the water change, I use a turkey baster to get detritus off rocks and noticed something larger than detritus blown off the live rock onto the sand bed. It was my beautiful mystery wrasse - dead.
<Mmm>
He had been exhibiting no strange behavior and ate heartily the day before (we feed a mixture of various frozen foods including mysis, bloodworms,
<I'd skip these last... not so much in marine, but freshwater systems have had troubles w/ feeding these sewer fly larvae>
Spirulina brine, rotifers and krill). I pulled him out and did not see any signs of damage to his body.
<Do you still have this fish? I would cut it open, look at the stomach contents. I suspect this fish ate something that didn't agree with it. Happens>
He looked like he had just died as there was no color loss yet. I did put him into a container with some of the tank water in case he popped up while I was cleaning. He had been with us for about three months. Today my melanarus wrasse seems to be behaving oddly. He looks fine, but I would swear that he can't see. He is bumping into other fish, rocks and corals.
<Bad>
We have had this wrasse for roughly 6 months and he has never had a problem. He looked hungry when I put food in the tank. Looked like he was trying to eat but was 'missing' the food.
<Blindness.... from what? A deficiency syndrome? I would soak foods at least once a week in a vitamin, HUFA, probiotic solution>
He has no clouding in his eyes, they look perfectly clear. I do have a 29 gallon quarantine tank that we keep permanently set up with a couple of Banggai Cardinalfish in it. I tried to catch him today but he hid behind the live rock. I thought I would try to get him tonight if he buries himself in the front of the tank where I can dig him out easily.
Obviously, I wonder if you have heard of this before.
<Thus far... have "heard" of such behavior in small Labrids; but these affects, loss are anomalous thus far>
I also wonder what could cause eyesight issues and how to treat.
<As stated>
Finally...will a wrasse be okay in a QT with no substrate. We have none at all in the QT although we do have three rocks that create a little cave area where fish can get cover.
<I would not move the wrasse>
Any advice is much appreciated!
Tiffany Cannon
<Welcome. Bob Fenner>
Wrasse Problems Earl's take       10/19/15
I have an 80 gallon reef tank which is home to several corals and juvenile fish. It has been set up for 10 months and has had good stable water parameters for quite awhile. Our LFS comes once per month to do a deep clean and spot check all three saltwater tanks we have in the house. I do a 10% water change in this tank every week. Water param.s this weekend were
0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 8.2 pH, between 0-5 nitrate, salinity 1.024 and temp 77 degrees F. Prior to doing the water change, I use a turkey baster to get detritus off rocks and noticed something larger than detritus blown off the live rock onto the sand bed. It was my beautiful mystery wrasse - dead.
<Sorry to hear. :( >
He had been exhibiting no strange behavior and ate heartily the day before (we feed a mixture of various frozen foods including mysis, bloodworms, Spirulina brine, rotifers and krill).
<This behavior is not unusual...a fish will often eat right up until death with no warning from appetite loss. As a side note, you can just leave out the bloodworms and stick to food of marine origin.>
I pulled him out and did not see any signs of damage to his body. He looked like he had just died as there was no color loss yet. I did put him into a container with some of the tank water in case he popped up while I was cleaning. He had been with us for about three months. Today my melanarus wrasse seems to be behaving oddly. He looks fine, but I would swear that he can't see. He is bumping into other fish, rocks and corals.
We have had this wrasse for roughly 6 months and he has never had a problem. He looked hungry when I put food in the tank. Looked like he was trying to eat but was 'missing' the food. He has no clouding in his eyes, they look perfectly clear. I do have a 29 gallon quarantine tank that we keep permanently set up with a couple of Banggai Cardinalfish in it. I tried to catch him today but he hid behind the live rock.
<Check WWM for designs on traps for hard-to-net species like this...can be made from plastic Coke bottle and such with bait inside.>
I thought I would try to get him tonight if he buries himself in the front of the tank where I can dig him out easily. Obviously, I wonder if you have heard of this before. I also wonder what could cause eyesight issues and how to treat. Finally...will a wrasse be okay in a QT with no substrate.
<On one hand the point of quarantine is that it is completely sterile. On the other hand I am 100% convinced that pure stress is a direct killer or huge contributor to the death of many fish. Because of this, I would absolutely always have some sort of cover for any fish, and none more than a wrasse that uses sand for cover...they do this for a reason and living in a shiny glass box, exposed, is probably a cure worse than a disease.
Bleach/nuke and *thoroughly* flush with fresh water some kind of decor for cover. Be it plastic aquarium plants in a pile, plastic shipwrecks or caves, or just PVC tubing (I get this in black from hardware stores, Home Depot, Lowes and cut it into appropriate sized pieces, heap it up tp give some safe cover to hide and recover in, then toss or sterilize it as above.
QT needs to be a "clean room" not an empty exposed box. You can medicate, observe, feed, and catch a fish just fine in this setup but some kind of circulation (simple airstone is fine). Obviously keep it heated, with clean water prepared separately from the main system, etc.. Sand is a hard call...would the extra stress from lack of a sleeping sandbed be worse than
possible contamination? I would err on the side of the sand but just use brand new sand in a Tupperware pan-shaped dish or what have you. No lights near the tank, a dark background, even a dark towel draped over it partially to obscure most of the light. There is a reason better dealers ship fish in black plastic bags now instead of clear.>
We have none at all in the QT although we do have three rocks that create a little cave area
where fish can get cover. Any advice is much appreciated!
<Excellent. This is what I mean as far as cover. Be sure to sterilize rock between each use of the QT tank or you may be tainting the process...live reef rock is definitely out. As for the root of the problem, what are the other inhabitants of the tank? Hard to make a call without knowing this...coral defense methods are not out of the question (stinging, chemical). May be internal damage from attackers, or parasites. Inspect it closely as you can for any outside marks. >
Tiffany Cannon
Re: Wrasse Problems      10/19/15
We have a very small chevron tang in tank, four small pajama Cardinalfish and a red scooter blenny. I think the corals we have are all fairly benign (hammer, frogspawn, slipper tongue, bubble and a couple of Paly frags) and we have no anemones (although we have two rather healthy looking Aiptasia that seemed to have come with the live rock). There is one trouble-maker in the tank. I have arranged for it to go back to the LFS on trade this upcoming weekend. We have a tube anemone that has really flourished in the tank. It is tucked in a corner and we attempted to 'wall' it off a bit with live rock. It has stung and killed a couple of corals. I had no idea how far out its tentacles were extending until I put a flashlight on the
tank last week in the middle of the night. During the day it's reach is half what it is at night! The fish seem to know instinctively to stay away from it. I knew it was possible that it might catch and eat a small fish, but didn't think the outer tentacles were dangerous to fish? I thought they were primarily for catching and pulling food down toward the center.
Any chance it can be the culprit?
<It's shocking (and fascinating) how much goes on in a reef at night as far as tentacles from "softies". Hammers and frogspawn can send out sweepers with much more reach than you might imagine...a foot sometimes. Anemones most certainly sting and stun fish, it's their entire modus operandi. I would not expect a wrasse to get nailed by them or sweeper tentacles, but it could happen. At any rate the clear but faulty eyes seem inconsistent with that to me...sounds almost like nervous system damage? Unless there are external wounds I would rule out the other fish. This is intended for retailers but serves as a concise checklist you should read through to try to diagnose this wrasse:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aqbizsubwebindex/fishdisho.htm  Hope this is helpful. >
Tiffany Cannon
Re: Wrasse Problems      10/19/15
Thanks for the quick response. Good to know about the bloodworms. Most of the fish don't seem to like them much anyway.
<Good for freshwater, not so much for marine critters. Much better choices abound.>
I will pick up some vitamins tomorrow and start giving soaked food every week.
<Good nutrition is a must of course. I recommend soaking the food in Selcon if you can get it to him. Maybe via soaked mysis squirted via turkey baster or pipette as close to his face as you can manage. Wrasses are big eaters as you have no doubt witnessed and suffer from lack of food more than calmer, less energetic and greedy species in my experience, though a hunger strike of a few days is not something to stress out over unless it starts to show. A extremely helpful bit of info I learned years ago is to observe the "temples" of a fish...signs of starvation are shown there early and clearly by sunken temples. Hopefully this will not be an issue anyway.>
Hopefully our melanarus will pull through. I appreciate your advice not to move him. It is rather complicated navigating a reef tank full of corals with a fish net without doing some damage. And I'm noticing the sickest of fish can move really fast when they are being pursued! I do still have the dead mystery wrasse. I put him in the fridge in tank water to keep him from decaying. I'll let my husband or the LFS perform the autopsy. Ewww...necessary and interesting...but....Ewww.
<Good to have this available though. Keep us posted.>
Tiffany Cannon
Re: Wrasse Problems       11/3/15
Great news...after a week or so of acting completely blind but showing no outward appearance changes to the eyes, our melanarus wrasse started to look like his eyesight was returning.
<YAY!>
He stopped bumping into things and seemed to have a better ability to navigate the aquascape and other fish, showing improvement each day. He started eating again after a week. He was picky at first and only went after bigger pieces (presumably because he could see them better). He seems now to have made a full recovery. As for the dead mystery wrasse, we didn't find anything out of the ordinary with him. It's too bad...he was very well-behaved toward his tank-mates and had much deeper coloration than many paler versions we see at the store. Thanks for your advice. We have
eliminated blood worms from the menu and have begun soaking food with Selcon. - Tiffany Cannon
<Ahh! I am reminded by reading Richard Ross's work on freshwater rays, that Thiaminase poisoning can be reversed by addition of B1 vitamin... Is part of Selcon. Cheers and thank you for your report. Bob Fenner>

Strange growth under gill plate  11/15/05 Hi, <Howdy> I have a lunar wrasse in a 90 gal tank along with a queen angel, <Will get too large... psychologically first, then if it survives, physiologically, for this system> a Condy anemone and some hermit crabs. The problem is with the wrasse. He has a strange growth protruding from under his gill plate, toward the rear. It sticks out just past and along the edge of the back part of the gill plate. It is bubble-like in appearance and sort of translucent, not a solid looking mass of tissue. Kind of like little water filled balloons (it looks as strange as it sounds). It labors his breathing and he is more lethargic now.  He has been lethargic with a decrease in appetite for several months and I suspected something was wrong. Well, this problem is visible now with this growth or whatever coming out from under his gill plate. It has been visible for several weeks now. He's been doing ok for a while now with it, other than the aforementioned symptoms and just not being his normal energetic and curious self. <Likely the actual gill, branchiostegal (supporting member) itself... from a physical trauma... a bump, or jump...> The system parameters are in healthy ranges - salinity 1.023-1.025 pH 8.1 temp. 76-78* Amm. 0 Nitrates 40 Nitrites 0 Everything else in the tank is fine and show no signs of illness. Do you have any idea what this could be? Any help is appreciated. Thanks! Tim <This genus, species of wrasse/s are very active... the Angel could have "spooked" it... Not much to do re... but hope for a self-cure. Bob Fenner> 
Re: strange growth under gill plate  11/16/05 Thanks for the response. I've been watching it over time and it seems to be slowly growing/getting bigger. Would that be typical if it were caused by trauma? <Mmm, yes... if not directly fatal, often this critically important tissue will enlarge, over-grow such traumas> What concerns me most is the length of time that this has been a problem; it doesn't seem to getting any better; if anything, worse.  Also, were you referring to the angel or the wrasse about getting too big? Thanks again for your help. <The Queen. Bob Fenner>
Re: strange growth under gill plate  11/16/05 Hey Bob, Sorry to keep bothering you with this same problem. <No worries> I looked up in FishBase the gill area, i.e. branchiostegal and membrane. That all looks normal on this fish. The growth is underneath that and coming from inside, out towards the back of the gill opening. <Mmmm, could be a goiter... a tumorous growth related to Chromaffin tissue... akin to Thyroids in tetrapods> It is getting bigger/swelling more.  Is there anything else inside there that could swell like this or is it maybe a growth of some other tissue?  <Yes... I would immediately try adding iodine/iodide (Lugol's solution) to the fish's foods, and to the tank water once a week> I'm afraid I'm going to lose this fish eventually and just would like to get this identified to see if anything can be done, so I appreciate you patience and help. <Sorry for not mentioning this possibility earlier. Cheers, Bob Fenner> 
Re: strange growth under gill plate  11/17/05 Bob, <Tim> I got the Lugol's solution from Kent Marine. It gives directions for adding it to the water, but no info on how to use it in food. Should I use part of the recommended dosage in the food and the other part in the water?  <A drop or two per food session is about right... ten, fifteen minutes before offering> Do I only dose the food once a week - along with the water as you mentioned? Or does it need to be in the food daily/more frequently for now? It seems you really need to be careful with this stuff from what it says and I don't want to over do it (or under either). Thanks again for all your help! Tim <Correct... In general one only wants to provide iodine/ide with testing. Not a real problem at this juncture, in your circumstances. Bob Fenner>
Re: strange growth under gill plate - Almost Instant Success!  11/18/05 Great, I'll stick to that regimen until this clears up. I gave him a drop last night in his food and, I tell ya Bob, this fish already looks a whole lot better! He is swimming around a lot and eating much better. The swelling has gone down too. I think you nailed this one. I can't thank you enough for your help and patience with this. It's much appreciated! Blessings, Tim <Ah, glad to hear of the fish's improvement, your success. Bob Fenner> 

- Strange Wrasse Affliction? - We have a green bird wrasse that has been in our tank for about 9 months.  The wrasse has seemingly thrived up until recently.  He is still eating well and actively swimming but has come down with some sought of white, almost washed out look on the sides of its head.  Could this be the bird wrasse equivalent of HLLE? <Doubt that.> Any possible help and insight would be greatly appreciated. <Well... provided you haven't added anything new as of late, then I would guess this is probably a nutrition related blanching. Do you feed this fish the same thing for every meal - or is the diet more diverse. This fish should be getting a mix of meaty foods with the occasional green seaweed item thrown in.> Thanks Al <Cheers, J -- >

Blind Bird Wrasse? FOWLR has 6" Volitans Lion, 5"Red Sea Male Bird Wrasse, and about 30" Snowflake EEL was just added today (Sea World leftover, long story) <Long- I should say! An interesting story, I'll bet!> For awhile now the Bird Wrasse has had a hard time feeding. He knows that food has hit the water and he searches for it but can't seem to find it. We've tried live ghost shrimp, flakes, frozen clams, and frozen silversides. We started back up with the SELCON thinking it maybe it was a vitamin deficiency. <Not a bad thought on your part...You could also try a preparation like Vita Chem> He doesn't seem to have any other problems and is a beautiful animal. Our lights are not that bright, a single 40W tube. Any thoughts on this one? <Well, it could be lot's of things...Nutritional problems can lead to a form of blindness in some fishes, and I wouldn't rule out this as a possibility. You may also consider the environment of the aquarium: Recheck all water parameters to make sure that there are no measurable ammonia, nitrite, or other toxins in the water. Check overall water quality: Nitrates and phosphates...Review maintenance procedures, such as water changes, protein skimming, use of chemical filtration media, etc. Keep trying to get this fish to eat, using a variety of foods like you already have. Observe carefully for signs of any disease, etc. In the absence of other symptoms, I'd keep observing and stay the course with this fish. Be patient. Good luck! Regards, Scott F>