mandarin fish didn't last 24 hours

L

Lucky Lefty

New member
So yesterday, as an early xmas gift to myself, I picked up a baby mandarin fish. It's a female green mandarin, maybe 1.5" in length at best.
I watched her for about a half hour and she was actively eating amd swimming around.

Came home, acclimated for about an hour and 20 minutes, along with 7 turbo snails, and dropped them in the tank.

She was doing great almost imstantly. Swimming about, eating pods left and right, I even showed her a hiding spot which she stayed in for 10 minutes or so then came out to hunt some more.

She slept on the sand last night... all seemed great.

Woke up this morning, come downstairs and she's no where on sight. Take a look around, and I find her pinned to the side of the wp40 powerhead. F^&@$!!!!!!

Shut down the powerhead, and waved my hand near her and she sprang to.. I got her away from the powerhead and she went down to the sand, where I can now she the right side and top of her body is heavily damaged. Scales remain white and the right side, which was stuck to the powerhead, is sucked in and it doesn't seem she can use those fins to we'll as when she tries to take off she spins in a circle.

:(

This is a terrible day.. I was so excited about this fish. Waited a long time, felt like I found the right one and my tank was ready.

Is there any way she can pull through. Has anyone has a fish sustain damage like this and survive? She doesn't appear to have an open wound.

Today... hurts.
 
Further inspection shows her right side fin, the primary fin that flutters all the time, is what I can only describe as chewed in half. Is the recoverable?

She seems to be trying to eat.. but seems more of a struggle than anything
 
Here's a shot.. Crappy quality die to ipad
 

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I haven't tried frozen food yet, was planning on trying it today.
she seems to be trying to get along.. right now she's propped up on a turbo snail against the wall.
nowhere near eating as much as yesterday, but every so often she seems to peck and at least try to eat something.
honestly she looks more labored than anything, like she's too focused on moving more than eating.
I haven't given up hope just yet, but this is tough to watch.

Perhaps I'll thaw some frozen mysis amd see if she takes it
 
If she is picking at the rocks that's a good sign.My mandarins have alittle difficulty swimming around my tank,flow really pushes them around.Hope she pulls through.
 
I'm trying to observe as much as I can..
I haven't seen her actually eye up a pod and pluck him as you would usually see..

See seems moreso just hanging in there, and her lips are constantly puckering in and out. I've seen her make a few quick, spasmatic moves, a few times looked like she may have been eating, but I'm starting to think she's fading out.
she was just laying on top of the turbo with her lips against the wall, pods walking around her mouth and she wasn't even looking at them..
the future is looking grim.
completely bummed at this point.

BAH HUMBUG
 
Just reporting more as I find.. obviously this is consuming my day right now.

I think she has some spinal damage.. the area where she was stuck to the pump is sucked in right behind her rib cage, and her body is slightly curved.
haven't seen her flex up her front dorsal fin.
Put some thawed mysis around her and she didn't go fornit.
 
oh man, what a sad thing to have to watch. i really hope she comes out of it and is healthy again. they are such gorgeous fish and yours is beautiful!
 
Thanks.

Just going to leave her be for now I guess. I'm kind of at a loss as what to do.

Just feel terrible about it really.

Another lesson... the hard way, just as its been from day 1.
 
Well, from Drs. Foster and Smith Website:


A 180 gallon or larger, fish-only aquarium with a good protein skimmer is a suitable home. It may be aggressive at times, nipping the fins of tank mates and leaving a circular hole as its mark. It will eat invertebrates found in a reef aquarium. It has the ability, when threatened or scared, to inflate its body to almost twice its normal size. Parts of its flesh are poisonous if digested.
 
Sorry to hear... but maybe my anecdote will give you some hope.

I inherited a small tomato clown from my previous tank owner, and I transferred it to my 30g hoping it would pair up with my bigger tomato clown. The small clown got so messed by the bigger one, its dorsal fin was pretty much completely chewed off before we could rescue it and put it back into the 90g.

After a week or two, the dorsal completely regrew and the small tomato was well on its way. It's now off to a new owner, where he is happy.

Hope the Christmas will still be merry for you and the mandarin pulls through. It's a beaut.
 
Thanks for the positive thoughts. She's been in the same spot for a few hours now.. breathing and fluttering her fins, but pretty much not moving around.
I really hope she pulls through.

I hope it wasn't the puffer.. although the wife and I were just wondering of he's turning into a midnight murderer.. there's a serpent star in there I haven't seen since the day I put it in, sometimes snails are upside down in weird spots, and now this.. he seems so docile if not afraid of a lot of things, and if he did attack the mandarin I would think it would be missing a part of its body or gone altogether. . I've seen this puffer decimate shrimp twice the size of the mandarin with a single peck.

Sigh.... so bleek. What a crappy day. Cmon Mandy... cmon!!
 
I'm inspecting the mandarin fish as it lays on the sand under the flashlight now that the lights are out.
I'm looking at the left side, which is the opposite side she was stuck on.
I must say, I am highly suspecting that the puffer took a quick chop the top of the mandarins back, possibly while sleeping and faded in color resembling a piece of shrimp.
the wound area seems to be a half circle shape on st lest this side I can see. Which would explain why th ree appears to be spinal damage.
Not for certain.. but this seems a highly likely scenario.
 
Oh no, that's too bad :( Do you have another tank you could move her to for now? Might be hard to find pods on Christmas Eve though. *sigh*
 
Do not give up! If you have a smaller tank you can move her to, you can nurse her back to health more effectively. Do not give up. She can live through this. And you can't know if she has spinal damage yet. Of course her body will be curled right now, she's sore. You've got to give her time to heal.
Get her into a smaller tank where you can nurse her and be sure she eats. Nutramar ova fed through a disposable pipette ( I get mine from Amazon ) should keep her nourished until she is healed enough to swim and hunt. You can also overnight some live pods from Drs foster and smith. Keep an eye out for infection. Be sure you have meds in case of fungus or bacteria infection, but don't use unless you have to.
Do not give up on this fish!
 
Ok so, yesterday the mandarin hid all day long, in almost the exact same spot.

Breathing normally, fluttering wings, but her tail fin has nearly completely disintegrated.

She hadnt left the cave all day, and the puffer was sleeping so it wasn't that he bit her tail off, as the day went on, I noticed more and more of the tail missing.
In the morning, about 25% of the tail flush was gone! and I could see bones sticking out.
This morning she has moved from the cave, and you can now see 100% of her tail has decayed away.
In the attached photo, taken this morning, you can see the wound area on the center of her back. It is pretty clear to see the bite mark indent (half circle) from which I believe the puffer took a chomp upon them first meeting, night one.

I guess I learned a few things here, unfortunately at the expense of a beautiful creature that I became attached to before I even purchased her.
I guess I should have put a divider of some sort between the two fish, perhaps a box of some sort to get the puffer used to the mandarin, as opposed to the puffer finding it sleeping in the sand doing its best shrimp impression.

I still am yet to see her eat since the injury. Although she is breathing and slightly moving around, she seems to be suffering, and a tail rotting of falling off cannot be a good sign. As I said before, I think her spine is broken, and she is most likely paralyzed from the dorsal fin down. I don't want her to suffer, but I don't know if euthanasia is needed here, and my wife doesn't want me to pull her out to finish her off, I guess maybe because she has hopes she may pull through.
 

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