Green mandarin mystery death

[smslavin]

I lost my green mandarin yesterday. The maroon clown was acting a bit funny and hovering face down over something. As I looked closer, there was a fin sticking out of the sand. I think she buried the mandarin.

When I removed the mandarin, a large portion of his belly had turned completely white, almost transparent. This afternoon, I noticed something that could either be a fire or bristle worm digging itself back into the sand. It looked a lot like this.

I was at the fish store a couple of hours ago picking up food for my other tank. The guys there mentioned that the mandarin may have laid down on top of the fire/bristle worm and gotten itself burned to the point that its gills may have stopped working. This assumption was based on the fact that the mandarin's skin had turned white. Would this be an accurate assumption? Is the fire/bristle worm something I need to try to catch and remove? Any ideas on how to go about doing that?

Thanks

Sean

 

[Anonymous]

Sean,

Please search the archives here on this fish. I could type you a tome of a post, but it's all been said here before.

In short, they are difficult to keep, not for beginners, and need large tanks with enough live-rock to support their feeding habits.

They are acutally quite hardy, aside from the feeding issue.

Jim

 

[smslavin]

No worries Jim. I was aware of the difficulty and its feeding issues but I was unaware of the needed tank size until earlier today. When I picked it up a few weeks ago, it was already adult sized, close to 3". It appeared to acclimate well and was definitely feeding here.

My concern was really with the dramatic skin discoloration and the worm sighting. From what I've read around here, you seem to know what you're talking about and I'd value any opinion you might have.

I'll try another mandarin in the near future once I get the larger tank pieced together.

 

[Anonymous]

The worm was scavenging in all probability, and the loss of color on death is not usual due to that scavenging. I wouldn't worry about removing the worm.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep.
Just the crew going to work.

FWIW, I've had good luck keeping mandarins and scooters in tanks using "pod piles". Pretty much just live rock rubble piled behind the live rock in the display, and in the sump or refugium as well. This provides a place for the pods to live, feed and propagate that is free from predation by the mandarin or other fish in the tank. Pods are always coming and going obviously, and if done right in an appropriately large tank, it helps greatly to mitigate the intrinsic difficulties of keeping this fish.