First fish death

[5Dsofdodgeball]

Hello all,
Unfortunate news- I had my first fish loss in my reef tank. I purchased this mandarin dragonette about 3 weeks ago and he seemed to be doing great until two days ago where I noticed a fin on one side had white on it and seemed damaged. Yesterday he was barely moving, and today he was a goner. Every other fish is doing great, zero ammonia, and copeapods are still plentiful.
I’m leaning more towards injury than disease, due to the suddenness of it, but I’m not sure.

Tank mates are- 2 clowns, 1 blue tang, 1 foxface, 1 dottyback.
Any ideas as to what happened?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Sorry for your loss! I had the same thing happen to my bicolor blenny. Did great for weeks then tares on the fins it stopped moving and died

 

[EmdeReef]

looks like it could be an injury or bacterial infection. How long have you noticed the spot for?
What kind of dottyback? I could see some more aggressive dottybacks attacking a mandarin and they’re too slow “to run.”

 

[5Dsofdodgeball]

It’s an orchid dottyback, he hasn’t shown himself to be aggressive in nature, but I’m not watching him at all times. We’re also wondering if he got caught in a rock.

The white spot was only there for a day or two, but it appears to have been mostly sand stuck to him. Looking at the carcass it looks like the left fin was totally obliterated.

 

[Lol21]

It’s an orchid dottyback, he hasn’t shown himself to be aggressive in nature, but I’m not watching him at all times. We’re also wondering if he got caught in a rock.

The white spot was only there for a day or two, but it appears to have been mostly sand stuck to him. Looking at the carcass it looks like the left fin was totally obliterated.

My experience with orchid dottybscks is they are peacefull... Now you sure its an orchid and not the other one that looks nearly identical

 

[5Dsofdodgeball]

Here is the dottyback I’ve got. I do t think he’s been aggressive, but whose to say. Could a hermit crab have done this while he was sleeping?

So at this point if no other fish get anything over the next few weeks am I safe to say I don’t have an issue?
maybe the mandarin came with some issue that just took until the last two days to show itself?

Id like to try a mandarin again, but I’ll probably try a different store. quarantining it would be a pain since my main tank has all the copepods.