Dragon Wrasse Advice

[Charli]

Hello,

I'm new to the hobby but my husband has been doing this most of his life. However, we're both stumped as to what's going on with my dragon wrasse.

I've had him for almost a year. He's moved from a 75 gal to a 125 gal to our new 300 gal. He's never had issues before. We have some fairly sensitive fish in the tank with him and no one else seems to be experiencing anything negative.

For about a week now he's been periodically breathing incredibly hard and laying on his back under some rock. I expected him to die when we first noticed this but he's still kicking. He's eating and swimming and his breathing slows down again. Obviously something is wrong but we don't know what it is.

There's no sign on ick on him and while the nitrates test slightly high, they aren't alarming. We have 4 water movers so we've ruled out low oxygen.

The googles are strong with me but I've only found similar symptoms with new dragon wrasses. We haven't added a new fish in quite a while however we did add 40lbs of base rock about a week ago.

If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you

 

[SteveT]

How recent was the move to the 300Gal? Every time you move a fish there is stress involved and wrasses act pretty weird when they are stressed. New rock work also can change territories and cause aggression related stress. I bet he will snap out of it once territories are settled out if this is the case. If the labored breathing is very regular and doesn't go away it could still be Ich, even if its not visible on the outside of the fish. The most common place for ich to infect is inside the gills

 

[Charli]

Thanks Steve, the move was in May.

The territories make a lot of sense actually. Most of the fish seem significantly happier with the new rock and caves we've created but it did add a lot of new structure within the tank.

He seems to be very aware of his environment as every time I bring my phone up to take a picture of his behavior, he swims off.

Hopefully he'll kick out of it soon.

 

[jagermeister]

Could anything have been introduced on the base rock? When I see wrasses behaving the way you describe, I always think flukes. May be something to look in to. Might have had them for a while too and the recent moves exaserbated the problem.

 

[Charli]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't been able to rule out flukes but he's the only one affected. He's still doing the same things but at least he's alive for now.

 

[jahmic]

When you say base rock, do you mean rock that had been bleached/dried? If so it's pretty unlikely that you introduced any parasites to the system. I suppose it could be leaching something into your tank, but then I'd assume some of your more sensitive fish would be stressed as well.

That being said, every time I move some rock around in my tank (28gal nanocube), my yellow wrasse acts the same way for about 24 hrs. I don't rearrange often, but it's a definite pattern with him. Can you afford to turn the lights out for a day or two? I've had stressed fish bounce back after cutting the lights off or reducing them significantly in both my current SW setup and past FW systems. Also keep in mind that those guys sleep under the sand; if there's a chance that your new rockwork claimed his territory and his "bed", it may take him a while to settle in...I had the same issue with my wrasse. Having the lights off might give him the extra nudge to explore the tank and find a new spot in your sand bed.

These days, since I now know exactly where my wrasse sleeps, I tend to move things around either after the lights go out, or on the weekends before they kick on in the late morning. Doesn't help you now...but might be useful in the future if you ever move rocks again...just make sure you don't bury the guy under a 30lb piece of pukani.