Help! My wrasse keeps its mouth wide open and can't feed!

It's been several days now. My melanurus wrasse cannot close its mouth and it kept pecking on rocks and sand. It looked really sluggish so I took it out and put it into a hospital tank and have been using parasite med. It laid sideways and even belly up at times.

Since 2 days ago, it's looking really good and even tried to eat but its mouth still stays open so it cannot eat. I'm afraid it'll starve to death. Any suggestion on medication and advices?

PLEASE HELP! Thank you.

 

My male clown did the same thing for two days, I just let him be and now he is back to normal.


Do the gills look swollen?

 

Yes it seems to be breathing a bit harder than normal. When should I put it back into to DT?

 

I would leave it for now, make sure there are areas for the fish to hide. We don't want to stress the fish out any more.

I would send a message to Evolved "The Wrasse Expert", or hopefully someone with fish disease will chime in quickly.

 

The mouth area on some Wrasses is prone to damage.
Its possible it has a broken jaw or lockjaw. This can occur if the fish has run into the tank wall or LR.Not uncommon for these particular Wrasses which contributes to there abysmal survival rate.(along with shipping stress.)

 

So in this case, there's nothing that can be done?

 

If its a broken jaw,no unfortunately. Sometimes lock jaw will go away on its own.

 

I'm no disease expert, however. Although, the only thoughts that come to mind are what Vinny has already covered. It sounds like a broken or locked jaw.