Mandarin just dropped dead!

Rockster2599

Rockster2599

New member
I was just doing work on my tank and my mandarin just dropped dead right in front of me:eek1:.
He was swimming around, I used a power head to blow the rocks clean and he was on his back without a mark on him. I can't believe he has gone so I have him in a net away from the CUC. What happened?
 
Maybe I didn't get this across guys but it dropped dead while I was watching it. Without a mark on it, it looked stunned. I thought it could be electric shock but my hand was in the tank at the time and none of the other fish showed symptoms.
From me seeing it swimming to seeing it dead all happened in the space of 20 seconds.
 
I have watched a fish die right infront of me as well. If the fish was harvested using cyanide it may just die without cause. Mandarins are very very finicky fish that require alot of pods to stay alive. If they do not get the right food (not just eating food but the right food) they can just die from lack of nutrition.
 
No fluttering, or anything? Just from live to dead? Kind of freaky, but, it does happen...

A hawkfish that I had for years did that not too long ago. He came out to feed, and when I came back in the room 30 seconds later, he was belly up and motionless at the bottom of the tank. At first, I thought he stunned himself while swimming after food, so I scooped him up, and let him hang in a net submerged in the water to keep the others from harrasing him while he recovered, but he never did...
 
Starvation for a critical nutrient is one strong possibility. Too long for cyanide. No evidence of shock. But heart stoppage due to deprivation, maybe, if eating other than copepods. Or just age. On the wild-caughts, we don't know how old they are.
 
CedzAquAddictio said:
No fluttering, or anything? Just from live to dead? Kind of freaky, but, it does happen...
.
Click to expand...

Exactly that. As SK8r said too long for cyanide, a pale lesion is starting to develop over his left eye but he's definitely a goner. Maybe something fell on him? In 8 years of reefing I've never seen that.
 
^ that was my thought. A pistol shrimp would snap a mandarin with no hesitation if it came to close to / in its burrow. And with a lesion developing it sounds like its a possibility.
 
It is definitely possible. They're claws are ridiculously powerful. I forgot where the link is but essentially what they do is they snap they're claw so fast and with so much strength they create an air pocket in the water by splitting water. Then the air bubble implodes on itself and that's what can really do damage. It's like a small atomic bomb. Try googling around for slow motion videos of them snapping they're claws. Pretty crazy stuff
 
My bet is organ damage from the pistol. I lost a few fish that way until I figured it. Organ damage is slow, but ultimately, even days later, the fish dies. Could have been an aneurysm from the injury blowing out, on so small a scale we wouldn't see it, but fatal. Or kidney damage, adding up to fatal blood toxicity. Mandy could be in a world of hurt, but he just keeps doing mandy things until he falls over.
 
sometimes perfectly healthy humans drop dead from a random organ failure.

I would assume it can happen with all animals at some point.

That being said, collection methods and various causes have been mentioned in the thread, but its possible you will never know the truth.
 
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