wrasse

[cocoboy821]

hey everyone
i have a wrasse (wrassie) for bout 3 or 4 months, maybe close to five (not near my notes).. he's always been an oddball, "admiring" himself in the reflection, swimmin to the top of the tank & then laying on his side and falling to the bottom. yesterday my mom noticed that he was "walkin" on his tail, and i watched him for awhile and he was acting odd, but nothing totally outta ordinary for him really.

today he's hiding, something wrassie NEVER does, and pretty much laying on his side.. mom really upset cause we've lost a court jester goby to starvation (not sure how that happened when we saw him eating and he would nibble on alge wafers & shrimp pellets), pj cardinal give in to being bullied, and a clam die
levels:
ph 8.3
ammonia 0
trates 5
trites .1
Ca 360
Kh 170
temp 80
fish:
2 clarkii clowns
maroon clown
chromis
yt
fire/cb/cleaner shrimp
emerald/sally light foot crabs
hermits & snails
please, help?
i've been watchin him some more since firt posting & he swam out in the open. he's body is a weird shape, sorta like a 's'.. that's the only visible thing that is wrong from watching him. we havent seen anyone attacking him and there isnt any bite or sting marks we can see

 

[saltn00b]

did you move rocks around your tank looking for him or something? sounds almost like he got crushed and got some bone / spine damage. almost impossible to tell without pics. what kinf od wrasse is it? what size tank is it? do the clowns get along?

 

[cocoboy821]

sorry, i always think i got everything down but i never do. we were thinking something might have hit him but we havent moved any of our lr & none has fallen. he's a six-line wrasse, bout inch & half to 3/4 long. our clowns chase each other and our chromis but leave wrassie alone cause he darts in holes too small for them. the tank is 75 gallons & been set up for a year & three months.
i'll try to get a picture and load it

 

[saltn00b]

well i know you didnt post about this , but it is very likely those clowns will eventually kill each other in that tank. its is very ill-advised to mix multiple species of clowns in a small tank. even if they have been in there since you have had the tank, just wait for them to get fully sexually mature.
as for the wrasse, it is definitely not 6-line behavior. it may be too late, but i have no idea what is wrong with him. maybe internal parasites? a pic is worth a thousand words. if it is a physical injury he COULD live a long and full life ....

 

[cocoboy821]

i have several pictures of him from today but when i shrink em down to 500x500 he's never in it, but i'm gonna keep trying. if it was internal parasites, could we treat the whole tank or need to separate him from the others? i was reading one of the post beth marked on the top of the row of topics & am wondering if our court jester goby had it & we just never realized it..
and yes, we've been told bout mixing clowns after we had them for awhile (and yes, i did ask on here bout mixing them and had responses saying it might work, but we didnt plan to have two.. it's a long story.) right now they are ignoring each other & every once in awhile they dig a hole with each other. we trying to wait till summer is over to get anymore fish & our lfs told us they would give us store credit for em. i think we keep putting it off cause we'd miss em, even tho they are a pain sometimes

 

[cocoboy821]

anyone? anyway to treat possible internal parasites? not sure thats what it is, but even if it wasnt would it be ok to treat everyone at once?

 

[beth]

Why do you have nitrites? Nitrites are toxic to fish.

 

[cocoboy821]

honestly? we have no idea

. we do 10-13% water changes, sometimes more, every two weeks and they wont go away. we use RO water, took out our fish & clam soon as they died tryin to keep it from getting high. i've asked on here what i should do, explain all i just said, and get told to do water changes like i've been doing them, or people do what you just did and ask why i have them when i have no stinkin idea. *sigh* we do all we can to get rid of the trites, and if that doesnt work we make sure it doesnt spike any higher than .2. it was actually at .3 before for two weeks & everything was thriving, amazingly. but we did a major water change & got it to 0 just for it to go back to .1

. it's usually .1 even when ammonia 0 for days in a row.

 

[cocoboy821]

but back to the original question, is it ok to treat internal parasites even if thats not what we really sure it is? wrassie is still alive so i wanna try everything i can to keep him that way. would it be ok to treat the whole tank incase anyone else has them and just hasnt shown systems like his?

 

[saltn00b]

what test kit are you using? some test kits give false zero readings. they say 0.1 at all times even when it is zero.

 

[saltn00b]

as a rule of thumn you usually want to medicate in an established QT tank for a host of reasons. however, some medications may be ok, possibly dependant on the type of tank you have.

 

[cocoboy821]

hmmmm.. i wonder if thats it, cause on trites we rarely get 0. we use hagen test kit.
doubt there's a med we could put in since its a reef tank, but i'll definitely check it out

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by cocoboy821
hey everyone
i have a wrasse (wrassie) for bout 3 or 4 months, maybe close to five (not near my notes).. he's always been an oddball, "admiring" himself in the reflection, swimmin to the top of the tank & then laying on his side and falling to the bottom. yesterday my mom noticed that he was "walkin" on his tail, and i watched him for awhile and he was acting odd, but nothing totally outta ordinary for him really.

today he's hiding, something wrassie NEVER does, and pretty much laying on his side.. mom really upset cause we've lost a court jester goby to starvation (not sure how that happened when we saw him eating and he would nibble on alge wafers & shrimp pellets), pj cardinal give in to being bullied, and a clam die
levels:
ph 8.3
ammonia 0
trates 5
trites .1
Ca 360
Kh 170
temp 80
fish:
2 clarkii clowns
maroon clown
chromis
yt
fire/cb/cleaner shrimp
emerald/sally light foot crabs
hermits & snails
please, help?
i've been watchin him some more since firt posting & he swam out in the open. he's body is a weird shape, sorta like a 's'.. that's the only visible thing that is wrong from watching him. we havent seen anyone attacking him and there isnt any bite or sting marks we can see
How long have you had this tank? What sized tank is it? How much rock do you have? Nitrites are a cause for concern, especialy at 1. Please have your water double checked at the LFS.

 

[cocoboy821]

as before, its 75 gallons and been set up year & three months with between 60-70 pounds. the trites arent at 1, but are at .1 (point one). our lfs is over two hours away but hopefully we'll be going that way sunday so we can drop some off for them to test.
amazingly, wrassie seems to be getting better, or adapting to whatever is wrong with him.yesterday he hid in the xenia at the top of the tank but now he's swimmin around a little bit behind the lr

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by cocoboy821
as before, its 75 gallons and been set up year & three months with between 60-70 pounds. the trites arent at 1, but are at .1 (point one). our lfs is over two hours away but hopefully we'll be going that way sunday so we can drop some off for them to test.
amazingly, wrassie seems to be getting better, or adapting to whatever is wrong with him.yesterday he hid in the xenia at the top of the tank but now he's swimmin around a little bit behind the lr
Ok, I am sorry, you must have a very precise kit to get a reading of .1. What kit are you using? The lowest is usualy .5. Something is bothering this fish if he is hiding behind the rocks.

 

[cocoboy821]

it's all cool, sorry if seemed like i snapped (if you can do that over the internet, lol) was being rushed out the door and tryin to answer your questions.
we test with a Hagen test kit, and everything but the trate starts with .1, and the trate starts with 5.
wrassie seems to be getter better or adapting or something. yesterday afternoon i was watchin them & he was sorta playing peek a boo between the rocks & today he's swimmin out front with the others, but still goes to the back every once in awhile, i guess to rest.
he's back seems to have straighten out a little bit, now it's more of one curve like a ( & as far as i've seen he's not really using his tail to swim
none of our rocks have moved since my dad used some apoxy (sp?) so they wouldn't fall since our yt & clowns sometimes dive between em, so i'm not really sure what happend to him..

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by cocoboy821
it's all cool, sorry if seemed like i snapped (if you can do that over the internet, lol) was being rushed out the door and tryin to answer your questions.
we test with a Hagen test kit, and everything but the trate starts with .1, and the trate starts with 5.
wrassie seems to be getter better or adapting or something. yesterday afternoon i was watchin them & he was sorta playing peek a boo between the rocks & today he's swimmin out front with the others, but still goes to the back every once in awhile, i guess to rest.
he's back seems to have straighten out a little bit, now it's more of one curve like a ( & as far as i've seen he's not really using his tail to swim
none of our rocks have moved since my dad used some apoxy (sp?) so they wouldn't fall since our yt & clowns sometimes dive between em, so i'm not really sure what happend to him..
The nitrite has to come down. 1 is toxic. .1 is what I am talking about nitrate at 5 is the very first point that is readable for nitrate. You are cycling. Get water ready for some changes.

 

[cocoboy821]

can a tank cycle for over a year? we recorded two different spikes when we first got the tank, before any fish, and still have been fighting to get the trite down with constant water changes when it spikes. our lfs doesnt even know why its like that.