Ball of Mucus?

[ajclarke00]

I awoke this morning to find my brand new (less than 24 hrs old) sixline wrasse in the corner where I had left him last night. Only, today he was covered in a ball of what looked like mucus. I tapped on the glass and he didn't move. I figured I had done something wrong (new at this...) and he was dead. I looked a little closer and seen that he was breathing though. I reached in and I moved the rock that the fish was laying behind and he didn't move. The mucus ball was about 2 times the size of the fish. I started bat the mucus away and the fish broke free and started swimming in circles and scraping itself against the sand. Now he is just swimming near the top of the tank, actually he isn't really swimming just kinda being carried by the flow of the tank. One of his fins is torn up pretty bad, and I just noticed white dots on all of his fins. I was thinking it was Ich, but then it could also be Brook due to the mucus ball. Any thoughts? Also, now that I have already put the fish in my tank can I just medicate the whole thing? All I have in there is a true perc, a snail, and hermit crabs. Please help, fish's lives are at stake!

 

[tizzo]

The mucus ball is normal for wrasses. They sometimes "caccoon" themselves to sleep. I think it's more predominant when they are sick. I didn't notice a web around my wrasse until he got sick.
If it's brook, you don't have time to finish this post, but from the "white dots" you mentioned... Sounds like ick.
Brook is a sloughing off of the skin.

 

[sepulatian]

Are you sure that it is ich, or is it sand stuck to his fins from the mucus? If you do want to treat the display then you will have to remove the inverts and any live rock that you have. Do not add medication into the display. Hyposalinity is safe. Please read the directions in the Common Treatments FAQ at the top of this forum.

 

[percy-cin]

I'm ajclarke00's wife. I just thought I'd finish up for him. We talked to the lfs where we picked up the six line and they said everything was normal and he was fine. We brought him in for them to double check because he just looked off. They said he was fine, but offered us a refund anyway (which seemed suspicious since it's against their policy) so we took it. We went in the next day to find the poor wrasse was making good crab food.

It made me sad to see, but I don't think we could have done anything in the 24 hour span that would have saved his life.