Mandarin severly Bloated ??

[lllosingit]

I bought a group of 5 fish from another member who was getting out of the hobby.
I placed them in a one month old 120g (200g system) that all the live rock came from an established aquarium.
All the rock was transfered covered in water and placed in the water from the aquarium it came from plus some newly mixed water. So after one month everything looked great.
I didn't think I had a reason to QT the fish since 1. They were all came from the same aquarium. 2 They were going into a aquarium that had been fishless for a month.

Within a week I found one Tang with Ich so I removed all the fish and started Hypo salinity in two different aquariums.
The Mandarin was placed in a 29 with one other fish and I slowly brought the salintiy down to 1.009 over a couple days.
For the first few days everything looked to be going well.
The Mandarin was eating frozen Mysid and he would also grab formula one pellets if they landed nearby.
Today I looked in the aquarium and the Mandarin looks fat...Not just a little fat.... I'm talking 5' tall and 400lbs fat !!!
I don't know what is causing this? So for now he is in the tank by himself and I'm going to slowly bring the salinity back up for the time being until I figure out what might be causing it.
He looked normal at last nights feeding and less than a day he's bloated.
Anyone have any idea what could have caused it and how to correct it if it's not to late already.

 

[mwp]

Illosingit, what's the "sex" of the mandarin in question. I know you call it a "he", just want to make sure that indeed, you have a male. I only ask because when my females are ripe, they look like they've swallowed a golf ball.

Of course, I'd have to ask the following as well - is the bloated mandarin still eating? In most every instance of gastro-intenstinal problems, refusal to feed is a symptom. Another symptom is swimming difficulties.

If your mandarin eats fine and swims fine and otherwise shows no outwards signs of distress, I'd say it's just a fat & happy mandarin (hey, my biggest male is named "Fatboy" for a reason!)

FWIW,

Matt

 

[lllosingit]

I think it's a male...Long Dorsal fin?
I dropped a few pellets in the tank and when he came out to eat one is when I noticed he (it)was suddenly huge?
I was feeding him/her Mysid and also feeding the orange spotted Goby the pellets..I wonder if he was eating both and now he/she has a gastro-intenstinal problem, He/she is still swimming just fine and like I said earlier I saw him/her come out and grab a pellet.
I guess I'll just play the wait and see game, I had a Mandarin before I tore down my old system and he was fat and happy but he didn't get that way overnight LOL
There has to be more to it, It has doubled in size around the middle in less than 24 hours. It went from normal to maybe on the slim side to golf ball.
Thanks for your help.

 

[mwp]

Hmm...still eating but yeah, to bloat up that fast is wierd, especially on a male (yup, elongated first spine of the dorsal fin). My females do that on the day following a spawn (but they can ripen up to spawn again within 24 hours)...just haven't seen that happen in a male.

I'm always one to hesitate to medicate, and on this particular one, I personally wouldn't know where to start - I'd say it's time to research (or hope someone else has been through a bloated mandarin and knows what to do). I hope it works out.

 

[lllosingit]

I know Mandarins seem to react different than most fish when it come to disease and medication and so on.
He seemed healthy until I dropped the salinity so I think I'll just bring the salinity back to normal and not feed for now and just observe.
I don't think I have any other options at this point.
Thanks Again.