Nano Wrasse Troubles

[bruindave]

I'm a little at a loss with these wrasses. Are they really that fragile? I've lost 1 pink streaked wrasses and 1 possum wrasse.

The pink streaked wrasse seemed to be stressed when I got him in shipping from divers den. I had another thread on it and it didn't make it in the end. Didn't seem to eat ever, I matched SG and floated the bag for 30 minutes and plopped him in. The helfrichi I have is still alive from that same shipment.

tonight my possum wrasse was found dead and being eaten by my cleaner shrimp. I had done 5 weeks in QT, did TTM and prazipro. it had been in my DT for 8 days after transfer from the QT. I have never seen this fish eat in the QT, but always dropped brine shrimp in and I would see the brine shrimp disappear by the time I got back from work. I had to leave the powerhead off if i did this. That's the only real way I knew it ate. I don't know about the display tank, but I did see it pick at a few things. I think it might have had sunken belly, but I couldn't tell since it hid all the time.

the possum wrasse would hide mostly in the rock and I wouldn't be able to find it I would say 75% of the time. it never swam out nor did I expect it to. it seemed to have a slightly discoloration on it's side and was a little extra white, but I can't take a picture of that anymore b/c it was getting eaten. not dots or film though, it was just discoloration on one side.

the only other thing that happened was, when I cleaned out my skimmer a bunch of gunk flew into the tank. all the corals, clam, shrimp, jawfish were fine during that time. the pearly jawfish is the only other fish in the DT.

i do also have bristle worms that are about 4-5 inches long now. i have been thinking about taking them out.

all tank parameters are close to normal (low mg)
28 gallon jbj nano cube with LED lights
ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0
nitrates = 0
alk = 8.6
mg = 1230
ca = 390

any thoughts or ideas on what i did wrong or what i could do? cleaner shrimp were harassing it and I want to say that they didn't kill the wrasse, but they kept following the wrasse at times. gf is convinced it is the shrimp that i just added. i have nassarius snails and noticed a orange ball anenome high up in the rock work, but i don't think the wrasse would've gone up there. did it starve b/c it was getting out competed by my jawfish and the 2 shrimp?

so... are they really that fragile?

 

[Smite]

I have no experience with the pink streak wrasse, but IME those possums can be tough. My first was a little hog until I added a clown to the system. He immediately shut down and stopped eating/ coming out in open water. I tried another in my 20g cube with the same outcome. They are unique fun little fish but easily intimidated to death so I won't be trying one again, unless I set up a Pico type with only the possum.

 

[LAreefguy]

Yea Id say possums aren't super easy and if he wasn't eating aggressively in qt it prob was a sign of things to come. The pink streak was just bad luck. Maybe start with something that's really easy and see how that goes.


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[bruindave]

I have no experience with the pink streak wrasse, but IME those possums can be tough. My first was a little hog until I added a clown to the system. He immediately shut down and stopped eating/ coming out in open water. I tried another in my 20g cube with the same outcome. They are unique fun little fish but easily intimidated to death so I won't be trying one again, unless I set up a Pico type with only the possum.

that sucks that they're so shy... how long does it take a fish to die of starvation if that's the case? i was so overfeeding to try to get the possum some food spot feeding it... i'm sure the shrimp and jawfish were having a feast with the left overs.

Yea Id say possums aren't super easy and if he wasn't eating aggressively in qt it prob was a sign of things to come. The pink streak was just bad luck. Maybe start with something that's really easy and see how that goes.

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i did notice the wrasse picking at the back wall that had some of those tiny white worms when it first got in the DT. i saw it try to peck at a piece of brine shrimp once during the week when overfeeding and that was it. i even threw in an 8 oz tangerine pods to help supplement just in case.


thanks for the feedback guys. just to make sure the true cause of death, but no one thinks the shrimp or bristle worm would actively attack/kill a fish right? had to be weak or dying already? i'm thinking about removing the shrimp now b/c the helfrichi i have right now is also a little slow and shy on eating right now in the QT. it'll eat, just can't be in my presence... like the possum. i don't want the shrimp attacking or stealing all the food from the other fish.

 

[bruindave]

you guys think 2 cleaner shrimp in a 28 gallon is too much? i researched before and that seemed to be the max for a tank my size, but perhaps i'm thinking they're too aggressively feeding. thoughts?

 

[Smite]

that sucks that they're so shy... how long does it take a fish to die of starvation if that's the case? i was so overfeeding to try to get the possum some food spot feeding it... i'm sure the shrimp and jawfish were having a feast with the left overs.



i did notice the wrasse picking at the back wall that had some of those tiny white worms when it first got in the DT. i saw it try to peck at a piece of brine shrimp once during the week when overfeeding and that was it. i even threw in an 8 oz tangerine pods to help supplement just in case.


thanks for the feedback guys. just to make sure the true cause of death, but no one thinks the shrimp or bristle worm would actively attack/kill a fish right? had to be weak or dying already? i'm thinking about removing the shrimp now b/c the helfrichi i have right now is also a little slow and shy on eating right now in the QT. it'll eat, just can't be in my presence... like the possum. i don't want the shrimp attacking or stealing all the food from the other fish.

Depends on the fish. I've had copperband butterfly fish starve out, it usually takes awhile. That being said, one would eat brine only and still perished, just wasn't getting the nutrients it needed. It also depends on if they were actually eating in the LFS and if they weren't, how long were they there? Could have been starving long before being in your care. It sounds like you got yours from DD though, so he was eating before shipping.

Did you wait for him to actively start eating before starting med in QT? Most medications tend to cause appetite loss and can start them off in a stressful weakened state. Your paying at DD for that pre-qt treatment to known the fish is healthy and eating, so it'd be okay to wait.
100% positive he was eating in QT? And nutrient rich foods?

I don't see a shrimp or bristle taking out a healthy fish. The marks on its side are weird though. I had a tube nem grab a zebra dartfish and it left white lines all along his sides

It only took my second possum about a week to starve out. Pretty quick, but he was starving due to stress/intimidation so I'm sure that sped up the process.


My cleaner was one of my favorite critters in my 66. I'm no longer a fan of shrimps though, they actively steal food from lps corals. Sometimes tearing the mouth open to get to the food, damaging the coral.

 

[bruindave]

Depends on the fish. I've had copperband butterfly fish starve out, it usually takes awhile. That being said, one would eat brine only and still perished, just wasn't getting the nutrients it needed. It also depends on if they were actually eating in the LFS and if they weren't, how long were they there? Could have been starving long before being in your care. It sounds like you got yours from DD though, so he was eating before shipping.

Did you wait for him to actively start eating before starting med in QT? Most medications tend to cause appetite loss and can start them off in a stressful weakened state. Your paying at DD for that pre-qt treatment to known the fish is healthy and eating, so it'd be okay to wait.
100% positive he was eating in QT? And nutrient rich foods?

I don't see a shrimp or bristle taking out a healthy fish. The marks on its side are weird though. I had a tube nem grab a zebra dartfish and it left white lines all along his sides

It only took my second possum about a week to starve out. Pretty quick, but he was starving due to stress/intimidation so I'm sure that sped up the process.


My cleaner was one of my favorite critters in my 66. I'm no longer a fan of shrimps though, they actively steal food from lps corals. Sometimes tearing the mouth open to get to the food, damaging the coral.

I honestly could never tell if it ever did eat in person. I posted about the wrasse eating before when i first got it and it seemed like ppl said their possum wrasses would just eat when they weren't around or never saw it eat. i tried to leave it some pellets (wouldn't eat those) and some brine shrimp. i did the feedings with the powerhead off i could see where the shrimp landed so that when i got back from work i would know if they were gone or not. most of it would be gone by the time i got home from work and then i'd turn the power head back on.

thinking about it, i did have a purple firefish in there with the wrasse during QT and now do wonder if the firefish just ate everything. I sold the firefish a few days before transfering the wrasse to the DT because I was going to get the helfrichi. i would watch the firefish eat the pellets and not really go after the shrimp. so i assumed that the wrasse was eating the shrimp, i guess that might have been a bad assumption. I got the possum wrasse from a fellow reefer on here. he said it would only eat when the food fell to the bottom, which is what i tried to do even in the DT. I would turn off the pumps for like 10-15 minutes and let the brine sit at the bottom.

i did wait for the possum to eat (at least i think it ate, with the food disappearing) for 4 weeks before I started prazi on the last 5th week of QT. i did notice the first day after prazi the shrimp on the bottom wasn't disappearing, but then the 2nd day all seemed normal again with the shrimp being eaten.

that's good to confirm the shrimp or bristle shouldn't take out a healthy fish. girlfriend is convinced it's the shrimp and hates them. i think i may still take out one of the shrimp so that the helfrichi can get something to eat once i introduce it.

to try to describe the whiteness on the wrasse... it looks kind of like the two white bands here in the picture. However, that whiteness was larger and was filling in the area between the first white band seen in the pic and the yellow band next to the gills if that makes sense. i saw pics like this one below and figured it was fine since it wasn't a film or dots or anything that looked too bad. perhaps it was bad?

i really like these nano wrasses, but see what i might have done wrong as much as possible before i try another (and IF i actually do try another).

 

[Smite]

Well it sounds like you did everything right to me. Not sure about the white marking that took place. I do know that all my fish lose lots of color before they pass but that's more or less all over.

 

[bruindave]

Well it sounds like you did everything right to me. Not sure about the white marking that took place. I do know that all my fish lose lots of color before they pass but that's more or less all over.

thanks, i thought i was doing everything right too. just dumbfounded on what actually happened. best guess is just that it got over stressed and never ate in the 8 days in the DT, maybe even before that too.