fishy fatality

ok so I got a manderin (spelling) 3 days ago. acclimated him and threw him in. My H2O perams are right on target and I have never had trouble with fish in the tank he went into. So can someone tell me why he just randomly died last night. I was watching him just 8 hours ago swimming around happily and picking food off the rocks. He seemed to be doing great. He was not skinny either. No spots. Nothing unusual. Just dead...

Any guesses what may have happened before I get another? The tank there is a TINY hippo tang, a small cinimon clown, and a blue starfish. There is also a cleaner shrimp, some snails, and a small mushroom. Everyone else is doing fine as usual... Could it have been a fluke?

 

Maybe something picking on him?

I just got a scooter blenny (oscillating dragonet) and my damsel was tail smacking him (yes, I know, bigggg surprise ) I've only had the blenny for a couple of days now but last night we took apart all the rock work and brought the damsel back to the LFS.

 

Hello, when you say fluke, I think you are referring to a rare occurrence rather than the parasite, correct? When you say your H2O parameters are right on, which parameters are you referring to? What are all your parameters i.e. Alk, Mag, PH, Calc, SG, any Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrates, and of course Temp.

 

i meant a rare occurance lol. and as far as the water perams i check for everything under the sun. im kinda ocd w this tank in particular since the baby hippo is in it and i love him w my soul. i dont want anything stressing him out.

also no one was pickin on him. the only other fish in the tank are about a 10th of his size and they stay to one little corner of the tank. he was on the completely other side and his body was fully in tack when i found him. not even discolored

 

how did you acclimate him?

 

He was probably already dying from not eating enough. If he looked very skinny when you got him he was already doomed. Try to get another one that looks a little fatter and make sure you add copepods (tiggerpods) to either your tank every few months or your refugium if you have one. I have one now for about a year who is big and fat and doing great. I add Tiggerpods every 2-3 months (Reef Nutrition). Mandarins tend to stay to themselves also. Acclimate by floating for 20 mins then add 1-2 cup of your water every 5 mins till the bag is full and do this for about 45-1 hour then release him without a net if you can.

 

at acclimate him i floated the bag while drip acclimating him so as to not shock him w temp or any potential water quality change. i did it over 3 hours as is my usual routine. he was actually quite fat when i got him. and really vibrant. he was eating happily for the first 2 days that is y this is blowing my mind.

 

I do a two hour drip on every fish I have ever had....Unless he came in the mail then it will be four to five hour's....