Damaged top fin-Mandarin

HockeyRooster · Nov 23, 2020

So I see there is a chunk missing from my mandarin’s top fin (female).

In the tank I have:
Foxface lo
2 clowns
Banggai cardinal
Cleaner wrasse
Large Halloween crab
Small hermits-approx 6
Snails

Sometimes I see damage on my fox face after the tank lights come on but this has been less and less over the last month. It looks like scrapes or a small cut On its body. But the chunk out of the mandarin fin is worrying me A LOT! She is tiny (captive bred) and only been in the tank for a few months. I do not see any fish going after her during the day.
I do see the foxface and cardinal fighting a bit but this has really decreased over the last couple of months.

Any ideas as to what is going on? I don’t want to see anything else happens to my beautiful mandarin!!!

afboundguy · Nov 23, 2020

I would say if she's moving around and picking at the rocks and eating she'll be fine. My guess was it was probably the clowns if they're breeding going after her if she got too close to their eggs. I've seen them harass my mandarin before when she was super small when I got her (she's captive bred) but now that she's almost 3 inches they leave her alone. Mandarins are colored and marked like that to tell other fish they're toxic if eaten (got to love nature like that) so I doubt anyone was trying to eat her...