lachrimae
12/08/2005, 05:39 PM
Fighting for it's life... :(
This is not the usual "my mandarin is starving in my 12ga Nano" story though...
Brought "Mandy" home about a month ago & put her in my 135ga which has a nice copepod population supplemented by a 30ga fuge with TONs of pods.
She was eating a lot and looked very healthy up until she disappeared about 9 days ago.
Well, I finally saw her 3 days ago when she came swimming up out of the rocks. The problem was, she was swimming very erratically and when she went in front of a powerhead & got shot across the tank doing flips I knew something was up. Turns out that some other fish had been snacking on her fins and EVERY one of them was just a nub :eek:
I figured she was going to die but went ahead & put her down in the fuge to give her peace & quiet along with tons of pods to eat. The trick here is that she certainly can't move easily so the pods have to be readily available.
After 3 days I'm happy to report that she has been moving around the fuge a little bit although she may or may not be eating (I've kept the doors closed mostly so that she feels comfortable in there).
The culprit? I think it's our Coral Beauty Angel who we call Damien. :mad2:
Anyway, this isn't really a question or cry for help, I just though I'd tell the story. I'll try to keep track of this thread & post updates.
We're hoping that she can eat pods to stay healthy for long enough to grow those fins back (no idea how long that will take but I'm sure it will be over a month and maybe two).
If she lives, she will NOT be going back to the main tank. If she seems happy we'll let her live in the fuge and just eggcrate off 1/4 of it for caulerpa/pods to live without getting decimated by her.
Mark
Here she is now, looking like a torpedo:
http://eliverock.com/mar/Mandy.jpg
The pic was taken through the water surface with a flash so the skin color looks shiny & off. No, her caudal fin is not getting cropped in the photo. It's really that short...
This is not the usual "my mandarin is starving in my 12ga Nano" story though...
Brought "Mandy" home about a month ago & put her in my 135ga which has a nice copepod population supplemented by a 30ga fuge with TONs of pods.
She was eating a lot and looked very healthy up until she disappeared about 9 days ago.
Well, I finally saw her 3 days ago when she came swimming up out of the rocks. The problem was, she was swimming very erratically and when she went in front of a powerhead & got shot across the tank doing flips I knew something was up. Turns out that some other fish had been snacking on her fins and EVERY one of them was just a nub :eek:
I figured she was going to die but went ahead & put her down in the fuge to give her peace & quiet along with tons of pods to eat. The trick here is that she certainly can't move easily so the pods have to be readily available.
After 3 days I'm happy to report that she has been moving around the fuge a little bit although she may or may not be eating (I've kept the doors closed mostly so that she feels comfortable in there).
The culprit? I think it's our Coral Beauty Angel who we call Damien. :mad2:
Anyway, this isn't really a question or cry for help, I just though I'd tell the story. I'll try to keep track of this thread & post updates.
We're hoping that she can eat pods to stay healthy for long enough to grow those fins back (no idea how long that will take but I'm sure it will be over a month and maybe two).
If she lives, she will NOT be going back to the main tank. If she seems happy we'll let her live in the fuge and just eggcrate off 1/4 of it for caulerpa/pods to live without getting decimated by her.
Mark
Here she is now, looking like a torpedo:
http://eliverock.com/mar/Mandy.jpg
The pic was taken through the water surface with a flash so the skin color looks shiny & off. No, her caudal fin is not getting cropped in the photo. It's really that short...