Mandarin died. Any clues why?

[twiggyb]

As I was moving some rock around, I noticed my mandarin was stuck to the drain. I don't know why he died. He was nice and plump. I'm not sure if it has to do with the alk spike I had. I can't imagine he would have starved so quickly if that was the case as I haven't seen much pod activity up top, compared to my sump. Either that, or I think my male lyertail had bullied him into hiding, because he hasn't been out as much lately. I just tested the water: A:0, N:5-10, ph:7.8-8, alk 11-12, calcium: 370-380. Not sure about the phosphate since I only have an api test kit for that. Also, my softies haven't been looking so well. I don't know if this has to do with the mandarins slime getting sucked up and spit out back into the tank, but the sps corals have been doing fine. I need to replace my carbon, it's been a while. Anyone have any thoughts as to why he ended up dying and why my softies aren't doing well? The gorgonians seem fine, it's just one gorg and my neon green finger that aren't looking good. Here's a pic of the mandarin when I pulled him out, he was super slimy and very noxious smelling (don't know if I spelt that right)

Also, my emerald crab died yesterday too. ??? He may have starved though, not too sure.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Does you reef have a sand bed? Mandarins eat copepods, Isopods, and amphipods. Most people have a hard time getting them to eat frozen or even live food. So most of the mandarins in up dying of starvation. However you can successfully keep one by having and mature sand bed and lots of live rock for the critters it eats to live in.

 

[lisafoster]

I waited 19 months to add one to my tank. I have a 3-4 inch sand bed and 180 pounds live rock. He is contantly grazing they and eating the copepods etc

 

[twiggyb]

My tank will be a year old next month. I have a sand bed. I had tons of copepods and amphipods in the tank. There's about 75 lbs. of live rock in the tank. I've had him for about 4 months. He was eating great until my alk spike, he just hid most of the day. I also think that the male lyertail is bullying him as well. I don't think it was starvation. He was super skinny when I first got him and he fattened up quite well once in my care, you can tell from the pic he wasn't starved. If he starved to death he would have been much skinnier than that. I don't know what else it could have been. Maybe an anemone caught him then spit him back out? I don't know.

 

[Shift_9k]

Yea, doesn't look like he died of starvation. Good luck with the case chap. Sorry bout the fish.

 

[small alien]

just lost my male ocellated after 2 years. he was plenty fat. He was very big so maybe he was old. But he just went with no sign. Sorry about your fish.

 

[lisafoster]

I would not think an alk swing would have killed them. I know they do not have great survival rates in our tanks. If he as being bullied that could have caused him to go into hiding I would think it would have had to be severe bullying to kill him.

 

[twiggyb]

Survival rate is bad if you don't have a great pod population, mine was fine. My lyretail is pretty agressive with every fish in the tank. I can't imagine anything else other than that the alk swing, or an anemone that may have spit him back out. Every day I saw him eating and at night the water column was full of pods and rocks swarming with amphipods and copepods. I'm thinking maybe since he doesn't have scales like the rest of the fish he didn't fare well with the swing, although this is me just brain storming. Idk.....

 

[EvilMel]

Is it possible that when you moved the rocks you disturbed some sandbed area that had been left alone for a while. I know that one year isn't a long time to build up an anaerobic zone but I wonder if you released some sulfur into the water or some other toxic-ish substance, possibly.

 

[twiggyb]

There is a dead spot in my tank that I've recently started trying to vacuum out. I might have. I bought another powerhead today actually to get the corner circulating. It could be possible, but none of my other fishes have been acting funny or shy other than one of the female lyertails that get harassed constantly.