Mandarin Goby

[Wolters_88]

Came down to my mandarin dead and half of the color on it being gone and solid white. What would cause this? It was sort of white like this when I got it from the LFS. I have purchased three of these at this point and they die. I have the tank filled with pods. I don’t know why this keeps happening. The other fish are all doing fine. He was just chilling under a rock for the last few days. Would swim around and looked fine then dead...

 

[PanchoG]

Sorry for your loss, maybe stressed? following along.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

See how there are bare fin rays on the tail? This fish has been scavenged after death...could be bristleworms, pods, hermits, etc. Dead fish are fair game to a number of critters in a marine tank.
Jay

 

[Pistondog]

How big is your tank?
You can get mandarins that are raised on frozen food, so they are not as challenging to keep.

 

[Wolters_88]

How big is your tank?
You can get mandarins that are raised on frozen food, so they are not as challenging to keep.

I think since they are coming from the wild and not tank raised they are so stressed they just can’t take it.

 

[Wolters_88]

See how there are bare fin rays on the tail? This fish has been scavenged after death...could be bristleworms, pods, hermits, etc. Dead fish are fair game to a number of critters in a marine tank.
Jay

So it’s own food ate it. How crazy is that. It’s just weird it seemed to be missing some color when I got it.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So it’s own food ate it. How crazy is that. It’s just weird it seemed to be missing some color when I got it.

It could have had skin issues as well, I was just commenting that the bare fin rays show that something was "eating it" after it died. Could have been pods, but bacterial can also do that (although that usually takes 24 hours or so).

Jay

 

[hermocentricorbit]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses, it can be discouraging for sure. If this is the third time it may not just be a diet issue. I keep a pair of spotted mandarins and have built/stocked the tank around them. No stinging corals, no large anemones, no other competitors for pods, etc.

What size is your tank? What other livestock do you have? What's your rockwork look like? Water flow: how and how much? Water chemistry ranges?

 

[DaneGer21]

It couldn’t resist the greenery

 

[Wolters_88]

I'm sorry to hear about your losses, it can be discouraging for sure. If this is the third time it may not just be a diet issue. I keep a pair of spotted mandarins and have built/stocked the tank around them. No stinging corals, no large anemones, no other competitors for pods, etc.

What size is your tank? What other livestock do you have? What's your rockwork look like? Water flow: how and how much? Water chemistry ranges?

Tbh, I think the first two were due to my clowns in my DT. The female picks on anything that’s smaller than she is. This was the third fish in this tank. It’s a 60 lowboy with a 40 sump. The only other fish are a single clown and a half black angel. It’s a bare bottom with about 1/4 of it covered. He just always hid under the frag racks

 

[hermocentricorbit]

Ah, Clown's really take on a "wrong neighborhood mf'er" attitude when it comes to other fish. Bare bottom can be tricky with mandarins in my experience, they like picking away at sand just like rock and with glass if the (mine especially) male sees his reflection he gets super aggressive. There's plenty of room in a 60 for pods so your theory on the clown seems to be the most likely.