HELP!!! My Yellow tail wrasse seems ill

[allxj96]

So, i got this yellow tail wrasse (spotted wrasse) about 3 weeks ago, it's been doin great until a couple of days ago when i noticed it starting to lay down on the sand bed... it gets up and swims around like nothings wrong, it eats fine (lots of live brine), but its been laying down longer and longer every day... still eats great and swims around fine, but when i tap on the glass anymore he does not get up for a few seconds... any suggestions????

Also i recieved a mandarin about the same time... it has these white bloches(not ich) on its fins, started out with one bloch on one fin no its spreading to multiple fins and multipbe spots???????

 

[Anonymous]

sounds like a yellow tail tamarin

what do you know about wrasses and wrasse behavior ? :idea:

 

[Anonymous]

Well, first we need to know everything about the tank the fish is in. Size, type of filtration, other inhabitants, water values-very important info that might help us isolate what the problem is.

Also, those wrasses do like to bury/lay themselves in the sand so that may be normal, but it does need more variety to eat than live brine shrimp. Unless it is gut loaded, live BS doesn't have a lot in the way of nutrition so I'd offer frozen mysis, meaty foods, other frozen foods etc. (try soaking them in Selcon, a great nutritional additive prior to feeding).

As far as the mandarin, they are not particularly prone to Ich (but...caveat.. have been known to get/carry it). They do have a slime coat that attracts sand particles that stick to the skin, I would guess that is what you are seeing if they appear to come and go. The mandarin presents another challenge in terms of feeding and I do suggest that you uuse the search feature here on the board, and google to research how to take care of them as they have a dismal survival record unless the tank is huge and the natural food plentiful with little in the way of competitors or special effort is made to provide for them.

 

[allxj96]

Its a 29g biocube with bioball trikkle filter, a carbon filter pad, protein skimmer, 30lbs live sand, 20lbs live rock...refugium on the way...

Other fishies are 2 green chromis, a maroon clown, the mandarin, and an assortment of clean up crew...

the yellow tail is approx 3" or less... i know he sleeps in the sand bed at night, but hes been laying on the sand alot lately which seems strange, maybe hes just a lazy fish... oh also when he lays down a while his eyes start turning red, they do return to normal though
My tank is teaming with apmhs and copapods, he snacks on those all day with the mandarin... :?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I'd still like to know what your water tests at, as I suspect with the huge bioload you have the values are going to be less than optimal which is going to impact the imhabitants. You will not like the balance of my advice...sorry. That tank is far too small for the bioload you have in it, the wrasse and the clown will soon outgrow it and the mandarin will waste away. The tank will not support the mandarin, as it is too small to have a sustainable pod population.

Don't believe me? The last post in this thread in the nano forum of this board outlines the reasons mandarin fish are not suited to small tanks...

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=95733

I would do some serious thinking and research, learn a bit more and reduce the fish population to a more sustainable level before things crash on you. Again, take this in the spirit it is intended.

 

[allxj96]

The water tests come out per fect... the ph is 8.4 and the phosphates were at 0.25ppm (the only thing not @ 0)... i know the bioload is a little much, but it has not shown it yet... im adding copapod supplements and the mandarin eats plenty of live brine... i have yet to try feeding it any frozen foods, it has only gotten fatter since its been in my tank, but i do keep a close eye on it as i know the problems with mandarins in small tanks... if he starts getting mal-nurished he'll be given to my brother who has a fairly large tank w/ refugium... and when the others out grow my tank, they'll join my bro's tank too. So i enjoy them while i can...

Oh, ill have my refugium up and running tomarrow

I hede your warning, but at this time it seems ok

 

[MelanieF]

Does it breath hard while it's laying on the sand? Could this be an oxygen issue?

 

[Anonymous]

tamarins, potter's, leopard's, and many coris wrasses will often just lay on sand-it's what they do

often, wrasses will not exhibit this and digging behavior initially-as they become used to the system's photoperiod, they tend to follow a more regular 'bury/wake' cycle-some do the opposite-they stay buried for days, and then come out proggressively more as they learn the system's photoperiod

i'll wager you see most of the lying down behavior towards the early evening/early morning, with an occasional 'rest stop' here and there during the day (?)

if the wrasse is clean, eating, and pooping-you have nothing to worry about regarding the fish's individual health