Mandarin shedding slime coat?

[Fishinwall]

Relatively new mandarin just had him for a week. I have established reef of five years with refugium and lots of pods. No competition for pods from other fish. He was eating but stopped yesterday and doesn’t move much.

I just treated my tank with Chemiclean last Thursday. My PO4 is high (0.44, No3 no more than 10)

I have a video that shows him best but how do I post?

Here’s a pic

 

[ngoodermuth]

You can host the video on YouTube or Vimeo and post the link here. That might get better answers.

Just curious, are you only noting the slime in the morning after lights come on... or all day?

 

[Fishinwall]

Here is video. Tell me what you think!

 

[ngoodermuth]

Hm... he’s breathing pretty fast too. Mandarins are resistant to parasites, but not immune. Was he QT’d? Any other fish showing symptoms?

 

[Fishinwall]

You can host the video on YouTube or Vimeo and post the link here. That might get better answers.

Just curious, are you only noting the slime in the morning after lights come on... or all day?

It was late in the day

 

[Fishinwall]

So interesting thing. I came home yesterday from work and he was perfectly fine. Out hunting and eating again and no more shedding. Anyone else ever experience this?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Well, if it is some sort of parasite... they typically do have a life cycle where they drop off the fish and return later.

But, considering mandarins are pretty resistant, I would almost absolutely think your other fish would be showing signs of some sort. What other tank-mates does it have?

Another likely possibility is that he just got a little of his sleeping cocoon stuck on him and it just kind of held on through the day.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

One of my mated pair of mandarins has done this a few times. The only conclusion I have come to is it slept to close to one of my wrasses and its cocoon was on them. The only reason I figured this out was looking at the tank one night and noticed the wrasse and mandys sleep right next to each other and I will be danged if the mandarin didnt have part of a cocoon on it and looked like crap.

So if you have a wrasse that does not bury and builds a cocoon, it could be it ran into it when hunting or it slept to close to it.

 

[ngoodermuth]

^ It was probably actually its own cocoon. Mandy’s make them too, just like fairy/flasher wrasses. I saw mine sleeping in hers plenty of times when she was alone in QT

In the DT I have no idea where she hides to sleep... I never see her until she wants me to.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

^ It was probably actually its own cocoon. Mandy’s make them too, just like fairy/flasher wrasses. I saw mine sleeping in hers plenty of times when she was alone in QT

In the DT I have no idea where she hides to sleep... I never see her until she wants me to.

Thats what I thought to, but in my case it was the wrasses as they had entagled somehow. They sleep all next to each other in the same hole. Its kinda funny lol.

 

[Fishinwall]

Oh wow.
No wrasses in my tank.
Just one yellow tang
Two clowns
Two cromis
One starred blenny
That’s it.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Yea, I think it's probably just leftover sleeping goo. Just keep an eye on him.

He does look pretty thin, I know he's new so hopefully you can get him fattened up a bit. Does he eat anything besides pods?

 

[Fishinwall]

Yea, I think it's probably just leftover sleeping goo. Just keep an eye on him.

He does look pretty thin, I know he's new so hopefully you can get him fattened up a bit. Does he eat anything besides pods?

He doesn’t seem to. I had him in an acclimation box. I tied Reef Phyto. No luck. I tried frozen baby brine. No luck. Even tiny pellets. No luck. Then he jumped from the acclimation box into the tank.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

He doesn’t seem to. I had him in an acclimation box. I tied Reef Phyto. No luck. I tried frozen baby brine. No luck. Even tiny pellets. No luck. Then he jumped from the acclimation box into the tank.

Is he actively hunting in the tank? How’s he doing?

 

[Fishinwall]

Yes he’s been great!