Beat up Mandarin

[simion3]

My mandarin goby is not looking too good. I bought a midas blenny a couple weeks ago and everything seemed fine but the past couple days I noticed my mandarins fins are totally chewed to bits so I sat and watched to see if maybe something was harassing him and it was the new midas blenny. I took him out today but my mandarin isn't looking great. Almost his entire caudal fin is gone and he looks like he's breathing kind of heavy. Do you think he's gonna make it? His caudal fin wasnt completely gone earlier today before i removed the midas blenny but i just checked on him now and its all gone. This sucks. Any suggestions or anything on what i can do would be a really big help. tia.

 

[Sk8r]

THat's way bad. I've never seen a mandarin get into it with anybody---and here I was contemplating a Midas! Sigh. You might get him some pods---order online, dump them all in in the dark with the pump off, and let him have an easy time of it for a while. I'm worried about that top fin---usually when the structure goes, it's hard to heal. The side fins should heal quickly. But monitor your water chemistry, particularly the alk, to keep him from skin stress, and just cross your fingers. They're heavy slimers and can fend off a lot of ailments by that.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Did you actually see the midas going after him? What other fish do you have? 6-line wrasses often go after mandarins, poking their eyes out even.

Could it be that the mandarin had a disease? Was he in perfect condition when you got him?

All fish are individuals but a midas going after a mandarin to me seems like the least likely explanation for what's happened -- but maybe your next post will prove me wrong

FWIW - here is what I'd do:

Hatch some brine shrimp eggs,
Start feeding some to the tank as soon as they hatch.
I believe the babies can start feeding in about 24 hours from hatching, so after 24 hours or so after hatching feed them with liqiuid antibiotic *
Wait about 5 hours for them to "load" and feed again

Obviously there's no guarantee your mandarin will eat these, but there is enough of a chance in my opinion that it's worth a try

*LFS often sell a gel based anibiotic that you can dilute with water

As for the amount of eggs to hatch at first, I'd try to hatch 2-3 t of eggs so that you can "flood" the tank with them

Don't worry they'll get eaten, just substitute it as a feeding for your other fish. If you strain it in a brown coffee filter, you'll see that even though the tank seems dense with them, it's comparable to feeding 2-3 cubes of frozen mysis

HTH & Hope he makes it