Bubble boy Wrasse

megadon

megadon

Member
What happened to my 1 day old 6 line Wrasse? I found him encases in a web, it looks like he's in a bubble, fully intact, I doubt he's alive though. The bubble is attached to some rock. A shrimp got eaten last week by that damn anenome looking thing now this!! Please help.
 
megadon

megadon

Member
Does anyone know what it was that encased my fish? I don't want to go and buy more fish only to have it happen again. The Damsel has been in the tank for 3 months without incident, the Wrasse ws hiding in the LR, what could have gotten him?
 
shadow678

shadow678

Member
Lemme ask you a quick question...do you have any elephant ear mushroom corals? Or any anemones? When they eat a fish, not all of it is digested, and the remaining carcass is expelled in a casing of mucous that will not be eaten by your cleanup crew. If you do have any of these species of invert, I would be willing to bet this is what happened.
 
megadon

megadon

Member
I don't have any corals in there yet, just what came in the LR I got. After an hour or so the bubble was out in the clear and there were hrmits munching away at the fish and mucus. I pulled out most of it, but it broke apart. I have seen some spider web looking stuff once in a while too in the rock. I have Aptasia still, and this thing I posted a picture of before, that ate my Pep shrimp. But when the shrimp was eaten he was inside this thing, swallowed.
 
shadow678

shadow678

Member
I just went and looked at your thread about the anemone that ate your pep. shrimp, and that could very well have been what ate your six-line. Sometimes they cannot fully digest the food they take in, and will regurgitate what is left, and this is often encased in a nasty film. If it has already taken out a pep shirmp and a six-line, you may want to remove this thing to prevent it from taking anything else. Sorry for your loss.
 
megadon

megadon

Member
That maybe what happened, I am now thinking about blasting that thing with some boiling water, unless someone else has an idea, it's in one of my best pieces of rock, is there a way I can get it to move on to something else? Maybe someone here wants it?I have posted the pic again of this thing, let me know boyz!! Thank you.
 
buyitjody

buyitjody

Member
Is your wrasse ok? I have a fairy wrasse and she always sleeps in a bubble she creates from her own mucus. Some wrasses will do this in order to hide their scent at night from predators (even if there are no predators in the tank).
Believe me, it freaked me out the first night or so we had her and she did this. Thought something got her. However, we then read it was normal for some wrasses to do this.
 
megadon

megadon

Member
I don't think it was an intentional bubble, there was half of him left in it and what was left was getting eaten by hermits. I tend to think it was that Anemone thing I posted a picture of. Should I get rid of that thing, or buy bigger fish that won't get caught by it?
 
sistrmary

sistrmary

Member
It's not ugly...it's cool! Did you buy it or did it somehow manage to survive the rock shipping? Has it moved since you found/bought it?
 
kpogue

kpogue

Member
I can't tell, but it doesn't look large enough to harm anything,unless it has a heck of a sting, but I doubt it.
Oh, and... "it's ugly...id get rid of it" is not the best advice you've been given....IYCMD.
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
lol well that came out wrong.... i guess what i mean is it worth killing your fish for ? get a nice carpet if you want to keep a anenome.. and yes thats ugly... compared to other anonomes
 
iechy

iechy

Member
It looks way too small to me to have eaten and spit out a wrasse. Unless the perspective is wrong it couldn't have done that even if it has a nasty sting. I don't know much about these fish but maybe buyitjody is on to something. I know parrotfishes build "shells of mucous" to sleep in maybe these wrasses have the capability as well. Hopefully someone else will pst who has experience with this thing.
You didn't happen to be working on your tank with a runny nose did you?

[hr]
Sorry I couldn't resist;)
 
nm reef

nm reef

Active Member
I have heard that several types of wrasse will spin a web like stuff to sleep in or to hide from danger....its a normal thing with them. My 6-line would sleep in the stuff all the time.....its not something to get worked up over.:cool:
 
shadow678

shadow678

Member
If this was a very small six-line, it could possibly have been eaten. I have a very small(1" diam.) bubbletip that can eat large whole frozen krill that are nearly as big as the bubbletip. Anemones do not have the limitation of a skeletal structure, and are very flexible. If you have ever watched one move across rock, you can see just how much they can inflate certain protions of their bodies to move, why would they not be able to use this technique to eat? Also, if you notice, he said only half of his fish was left inside teh casing, and the rest was being eaten, which would of course mean the fish was deceased. I have yet to find normal-sized hermits to be aggressive enough to eat fish while they sleep, but perhaps I've just been very lucky with my hermits. I do have a very large hermit that has been known to eat small fishes, but we're talking a hermit that requires a shell 3" across, not a typical cleanup crew size. lol
 
megadon

megadon

Member
The thing is about the diameter of a half dollar, the tentacles reach out an inch or so. Just for the hell of it I fed it a piece of Silverside, it was very aggressive and pulled it in with some strength. My Tiny 6 line about an inch was hiding in the piece of rock this thing is in. Of all the people out there with 6 lines, have you seen it sleep in a bubble? My Damsel stays pretty much away from this thing and this was the thing that had my Peppermint shrimp in it, I saw the feelers coming out of its mouth, and it was bigger than the 6 line. I think I will try another fish (bigger 6 Line) and see what happens, if it eats him then he is toast!! Thanks for the feedback
 
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