novahobbies
Well-Known Member
I have a small McCosker's wrasse that I got a few weeks ago from a dealer. He is a young male, about 2-2.5 inches long, and he was acting and swimming fine when I picked him up. He went into my 20g QT tank, and was fine for about a week. However, he started swimming on his side a little....then completely upside-down. He has extreme difficulty catching food at this point, although he is still fighting. Before I go any further, here are the basic stats:
1. How old is this aquarium? Established Hospital, 3 months
2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level? 0
3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025, w/ refractometer. It can vary a little since there is only manual topoff for this tank.
4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? about 3 weeks ago at this point.
5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? This is the QT system. I have tried Maracyn-2 and Furan-2. I also started with a prophylactic Prazipro.
6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When? No.
7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? No.
8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? Fish is upside-down.
Seriously, he acts as though there is a swim bladder problem, but he stays on the bottom of the tank upside-down. His color is still decent, though slightly faded. His eyes are alert, and breathing is not laboured. He swims somewhat, but his energy is dropping.
9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish? See Question 8. I think I covered this.
10. Is the fish eating? What? Frozen mini-mysis. See the notation below how I do this if you want a laugh.
OK, so that should cover the basics. FYI the Nitrite is 0 and the Nitrate is rarely tested, but I've been doing 50% water changes every 4-5 days so certainly low to 0.
Now....When he started swimming upside-down, he still had a lot of energy and would go after food...both live brine and frozen mysis. Since this started, I did a little web-sleuthing and came across a possible issue - swim bladder infection is possible in young wrasses because the gastric cavity is still connected to the swim bladder. There was an instance like mine reported, and Maracyn was recommended.
I have so far tried Maracyn-2 (gram-negative) and Furan-2 (gram-positive and gram-negative) antibiotics. I've gone through full treatments of both with NO effects whatsoever. Carbon was removed for all treatments.
He's still fighting. Right now the only nutrition he's getting is because he's being hand-fed. I scoop the fish into a small glass bowl (he still tries to get away, but fairly easy to catch) and remove him so I have better access, then I feed him mini-mysis one by one with tweezers every night. I can usually get 5-6 mysis into him before he tires out....SOME protein, but not a lot.
I'd appreciate any other recommendations or even best guesses at this point. I haven't tried Maracyn-1 saltwater....for whatever reason it's very hard to get here. Not even Amazon. Sheesh. I do hope someone can chime in and offer an opinion. Thanks!
1. How old is this aquarium? Established Hospital, 3 months
2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level? 0
3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025, w/ refractometer. It can vary a little since there is only manual topoff for this tank.
4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? about 3 weeks ago at this point.
5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? This is the QT system. I have tried Maracyn-2 and Furan-2. I also started with a prophylactic Prazipro.
6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When? No.
7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? No.
8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? Fish is upside-down.
9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish? See Question 8. I think I covered this.
10. Is the fish eating? What? Frozen mini-mysis. See the notation below how I do this if you want a laugh.
OK, so that should cover the basics. FYI the Nitrite is 0 and the Nitrate is rarely tested, but I've been doing 50% water changes every 4-5 days so certainly low to 0.
Now....When he started swimming upside-down, he still had a lot of energy and would go after food...both live brine and frozen mysis. Since this started, I did a little web-sleuthing and came across a possible issue - swim bladder infection is possible in young wrasses because the gastric cavity is still connected to the swim bladder. There was an instance like mine reported, and Maracyn was recommended.
I have so far tried Maracyn-2 (gram-negative) and Furan-2 (gram-positive and gram-negative) antibiotics. I've gone through full treatments of both with NO effects whatsoever. Carbon was removed for all treatments.
He's still fighting. Right now the only nutrition he's getting is because he's being hand-fed. I scoop the fish into a small glass bowl (he still tries to get away, but fairly easy to catch) and remove him so I have better access, then I feed him mini-mysis one by one with tweezers every night. I can usually get 5-6 mysis into him before he tires out....SOME protein, but not a lot.
I'd appreciate any other recommendations or even best guesses at this point. I haven't tried Maracyn-1 saltwater....for whatever reason it's very hard to get here. Not even Amazon. Sheesh. I do hope someone can chime in and offer an opinion. Thanks!
