Sick mandarin?

[Eleni18]

Hi all. I have a beautiful pair of mandarins. Have had the female for about 3 years and introduced the male about 6 months ago. Both were doing fine, swimming among the rocks and eating pods all day long. Since this morning, the female is crouching under a rock, not moving, not looking for pods, not eating, just sitting there. I am worried there is something very wrong with her. All other fish are fine, so are the corals and all tank parameters are stable.Nothing has changed for weeks now.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Can you post a pic? Do the mandarins eat anything other than pods?
Jay

 

[...]

Bumpity.

Maybe try and feed her some Cyclops?

 

[Eleni18]

They only eat pods. But I have lots of live rock and pods. The tank is running for about 4 years now

 

[...]

Look for signs of illnesses.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Female is the lower one in the second picture? Seems like it has some pale spots on its head. With older fish, I start to think about the possibility of Mycobacterium infections.

I worry about how mandarins can tear through a pod population in a tank, and maybe the added male is finally reducing their numbers too much?

Jay

 

[Eleni18]

Look for signs of illnesses.

I can't see anything. She is just sitting there, gills moving but not moving her fins in the well known mandarin way, mouth opening and closing but that's all

 

[Eleni18]

Female is the lower one in the second picture? Seems like it has some pale spots on its head. With older fish, I start to think about the possibility of Mycobacterium infections.

I worry about how mandarins can tear through a pod population in a tank, and maybe the added male is finally reducing their numbers too much?

Jay

what is mycobacterium infection and what can I do about it? Yes the female is the one on the bottom

 

[N.Sreefer]

Look into the Mandarins eyes are they discolored at all?

 

[...]

Could she be having babies or eggs or whatever mandarins do?
?

 

[Phil D.]

Sometimes they shed their skin, ( making it look like they have velvet), and won't move for a bit. Mine did that the other day and scared the crap out of me.

 

[Eleni18]

Look into the Mandarins eyes are they discolored at all?

The front part of the head seems like a bit discolored. The eyes are half closed

 

[Eleni18]

Sometimes they shed their skin, ( making it look like they have velvet), and won't move for a bit. Mine did that the other day and scared the crap out of me.

Really???????

 

[Eleni18]

Could she be having babies or eggs or whatever mandarins do?
?

Mmm...not sure...she didn't seem pregnant. don't think so

 

[Pistol Peet]

Really???????

Its not the skin but a slim coat. And yes if v the getvich on them stressed or a few other things they will shed this layer of slim.

 

[Eleni18]

So...what do I do? Wait and see or is there something I can do? I thought mandarins are not prone to bacterial infections

 

[N.Sreefer]

Wait and see if the fish doesn't perk up soon add roti feast or bottles copopods or that frozen reef stuff just whatever high quality food you have on hand. Try to aim for something with garlic added it has been proven in a couple studies to help strengthen the immune system and aid in palatability. If after that the fish doesn't look any better you'll have to quarantine and treat more than likely with copper but someone more knowledgeable on the subject of medications could advise on what to treat. I would say it's what previous posters said it may been fine but looks like it's not eating enough they do eat more than just copopods in captivity. They can't get near the range of micronutrients from one species of copopods as they do from literally thousands of available species to prey upon in their endemic region.

 

[leighla wolf]

So...what do I do? Wait and see or is there something I can do? I thought mandarins are not prone to bacterial infections

With mine I ended up contacting my aquarium and asking for the aquarium vets number. They are scaleless fish so only treatment for them is chloroquine phosphate and you have to move them to a quarantine tank or the algeal bloom will be horrendous. You must make sure they aré actually sick if you’re going to actually treat them though.

 

[Eleni18]

She is still alive this morning but barely moving and the part of the head around the eyes seems strange, like whitish.It is not a problem of enough food and she only eats copepods. I cannot give her any frozen food

 

[...]

How is she now?