my wrasse is breathing fast

[Outkast]

hey,
my mexican saddle wrasse(also known as a rainbow wrasse) that i got thrusday is breathing pretty fast and he is laying on the bottum of the aquarium. he was doing great till today, since i got him he was very active, but today he is just lying there breathing fast. i hope this don't mean he is dying i really liked him he's a cool fish.

the readings are
amonia=0
nitrite=0
nitrate=20
PH=8.2
temp.=78
salinity=1.022

any suggestions will be appreciated
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[billsreef]

Rapid breathing without any other symptoms suggests a possible gill infection. This could be either flukes or some kind of protozoan such as Amyloodinium. The best thing to do is place the fish in a Q tank and treat with a good copper medication such as cupramine. In the future it would be a good idea to quarantine any new fish for several weeks just to avoid having these type of problems in your main tank.

 

[smpolyp]

To support billsreef it maybe a fluke as they are hitting the aquarium trade for the past 1 1/2 years. A sure sign of flukes would be giving the fish a FW dip. If the water columb or the eyes reviel a potato chip like animal you have flukes! If not quarintine the fish with a stable tank with a medication for internal and external.

 

[Terry B]

I would expect as lot of scratching with Amyloodinium. I would also expect scratching with gill flukes. Since the fish seemed to be fine and then suddenly began to breath heavily and lay on the bottom it could be kidney failure. Could this fish have been collected with cyanide?
Any kind of severe stress that has been prolonged can result in a loss of ability to osmoregulate. Personally, I would not use copper right now. I would move the fish to quarntine and reduce the salinity to 14-16ppt (specific gravity of about 1.009 at 80F). This helps with some types of parasites and it will make it much easier for the fish to maintain its internal salinity. This may allow it time to recover. If that does not do the trick I would try Maracyn-Two at the double dose in quarantine. Internal bacterial infections can cause symptoms like this.
Terry B

 

[Kengar]

Terry B, would the wrasse be able to take the hyposalinity? I know from both reading and personal experience that freshwater dips are very rough on wrasses. (I tried it once with a banana wrasse that was scratching like crazy; he looked like he was in shock within 30 seconds.)

 

[Outkast]

thanks for all the replies. i came home today to find that my wrasse was lying on the gravel dead =-( i just came home today with some medicine to try and get him better. thanks again for the reply.

later
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[Terry B]

Hi Kengar,
Hyposalinity and a freshwater dip are quite different. Lost of fish are badly stressed by FW dips including tangs. I rarely recommend them. Reports of any bony reef fish (sharks and reys are not bony reef fish)having trouble in hyposalinity are rarer than I even expected. Fish are not forced to attempt to osmoregulate in a reverse manner to what is normal as long as the ambient water salinity is slightly higher than their internal fluids. The internal salinity of bony reef fish is generally 11 ppt or a specific gravity of 1.008 or 1.007.
HTH,
Terry B