mandarin woes

[fishbait]

I just purchased a beutiful mandarin yesterday ( my main purpose for building a big fuge a month or so back) I stood and watched him forever at the lfs. he looked like he had been eating well. not real fat, but healthy and active. I brought him home, aclimated him for an hour and released him. he did like most fish do in a new home and hid in the rocks. I got up this morning to find him laying around the bottom of the tank with his fins shredded. now, i'm not up on the fish deseases. but, is this the desease that's called tailfin rot or something? if so, does it attack that fast? or did some other fish attack him last night. I didn't think I have anything that's aggressive enough to attack another fish like that. here's my fish list. 1 sixline wrasse, 2 perc's, 1 diamond watchman goby, 1 skunk cleaner and 2 peppermints.

 

[simpleman]

Perc's can get aggressive. Sorry to hear it man, Mandarins are my favorites.

 

[Bifferwine]

If the mandarin tried to go near the clowns' territory, they could very well have beat him up... Hopefully he will get better. Shredded fins usually heal pretty easily.

 

[fishbait]

hopefully that's all that happened. my stupid ass clowns have never picked on anything else before except each other. but, I wouldn't put it past them. If I ever do catch them doing that I will sacrifice them to the porcelein god! they have got to be the least favorite fish that i've had so far. and I can't kill them! I have killed all other fish that interest me way more than clowns. but never them.

 

[fishbait]

well, he's not doing so well tonite. he's not moving around much and is secreting a slimy coat all over his body. my cleaner shrimp was going to town on him and he did'nt even move. he even let me pick him up by hand. so, I put him in the refugium so there won't be as much flow and things to pick on him. he's been in there for about an hour now and he seems to have perked up a little, but not much. is the slimy coat a bad thing? or is this his way of healing himself? sorry if i'm so dumb on the fish illness part. I have never had a fish get sick or injured. they normally just kill over without any warning or symtoms that I can notice.

 

[ReefKeeper]

fish secrete the slime coat when they are stressed (i think). unfortunately, there is not a whole lot that you can do for it right now. just give it some time and hope that everything works itself out. i would just keep an eye on it for a couple of days. if it lasts the next 24 hours it may just survive the ordeal. you will be surprised at how hardy these delicate little fish can be if the environment is right.

 

[Doc]

sorry to hear about your luck. They can be tough to keep. I only tried once to keep one, but he died in about three days. never again. Keep him stress free and he should perk back up again. Leave him be for a week or so before trying to move him again. The slime coat is normal, as long as it is clear. If he is getting milky white on him, not so good. Good luck

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[ReefKeeper]

how is he doing today fishbait ?? the first 24 hours were crucial.

 

[yote]

Hate to hear about your mandrine Fish.
Hopefully it'll recover.

 

[SSalty]

Yeah, clownfish can be little bastards.

 

[fishbait]

sorry for the slow response. I didn't get not one e-mail notifaction that there were new post. I was like damn, doesn't any one care about my little fish. I started to feel a little like joe dirt.
but anyway, unfortunatly he didn't make it. he died later that night. :(
this was my second, and probaly last mandarin. I tried one six months ago too. he was eating well, stayed fat and active, then one day just killed over for no apparent reason. I just wrote it off as him time to go. now my tank is much more mature. and I have a big fuge just for him, and he barely made it 24 hours.

 

[reeffreak]

Sorry about that Fish.
Maybe you need a bigger reef tank to be able to keep a Mandarin.I had no problems keeping a mandarin in a 75g for 5 years +.Do yourself a favor and fine one thats already accepting mysis/brine.

Good luck in the future.

 

[Doc]

sorry for your loss. I agree with reef. I have read that they fare much better if they take frozen fare as opposed to pods. They can decimate the pod population of even the most seasoned tank in a few days.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[yote]

Hate to hear your mandrine didnt make it.

 

[ReefKeeper]

well that sux, i agree with everyone else. try finding one that takes prepared foods, and i bet you have better luck with them.

 

[yote]

From what I understand,the target mandrines usually are a little more hardy than the more colorful ones.
Wish I could get mine to come out of the rock for more than 1/2 a second.

 

[Bifferwine]

Sorry to hear about your loss :( Seems a lot of people have been losing fish lately. Hopefully this streak of bad luck is over.

 

[fishbait]

the bad part is that I didn't have this one long enough to wipe out all the pods. I don't think he had the time to even nibble on one until he got chewed up by something. and I think the last one got little fishy mad cow disease or something. he was fat and healthy one day, then floating upside down the next.

 

[reeffreak]

Most predators won't touch a mandarin.There coloration warns would be predators that I don't taste good.

 

[fishbait]

to top it all off I lost one of my new peppermints too. one was pretty small, small enough to fit through the mesh of the overflow box. I noticed that he made his way all the way to the fuge. I thought oh well, that's a good place for the little one. then about an hour later I was sitting of the couch watching t.v. and looked over at my tank about the time his antenna shot out of the sump return. yep, he found the way to the mag 9.5! those mag drive pumps make pretty good meat grinders.