salt water help needed ASAP!!!!

[cichlidchic]

our mandarin (ringo) is swimming erratically, not eating, swimming hard for the surface, then falling to the bottom of the tank. he's not acting normal at all. hes gasping, and he was perfectly fine this morning. specific gravity is 1.025, all other tank levels are registering ideal. nothing added in the last 48 hours. temperature is 80.

strange thing is that no other fish is being effected. his tankmates are 2 blue chromis and a 6 line wrasse.


please help ringo!!!!

[cichlid1409]

what size tank? how long have you had him? has he been eating well before? anymore readings you can take nitrate, ph, phosphate? have you done a water change lately? do you run a skimmer?

[cichlidchic]

skimmer yes. bought him last weekend, so tomorrow is 1 week. 92 reef corner bow tank, wx about 2 and a half weeks ago, but he has been checking the levels and adding ro and salt as needed to maintain the tank (it's my husbands). nitrates were between 10 and 20 , nitrite 0 ph 8.0, had been fine all week was eating pods pretty actively but slowed down eating them yesterday, tonight then went down hill and died 10 minutes ago full of color and no visible trauma of any sort.

tankmates are 2 blue chromis and a 6 line wrasse, so it's not like there is alot of bioload on this tank. it is running through the same sump system as a 40g breeder frag tank, but again, nothing has been added and no other fish are effected. only livestock other thank those fish are a sally-lightfoot, snails, tiny hermit crabs, peppermint shrimp, and a shark (striped cat shark) but he is in the 40g.

[cichlid1409]

sorry for your loss. nitrates are too high IMO especially if your running corals in your system (you mentioned frags) < 5ppm. how much LR you got in there? what percentage are your water changes. how did you acclimate him ?

[eklikewhoa]

Mandarins normally don't fair well in small un-stablished systems.... also keep in mind that at the LFS they are kept in holding cells which don't provide the diet they need so normally bought after it's been sitting at the LFS for awhile is a problem to start with when brought home.

Get on MarshReef.com and look for someone selling a healthy one they have kept for awhile. Either that or set up a QT tank and get some pods in a bottle and feed it daily multiple times till it has regain health and acclimated.... then try to wean it over to brine.

[cichlidchic]

we are suspecting that the 6 line wrasse depleated his food source too much. the tank is well established. we have had it for over 7 months, and it's a moved tank, not a new one. we purchased it cycled already. those guys had it for 2+ years. we purchased him from city pets last saturday. there is enough live rock in this tank to sustain a 120 gallon reef tank, and we added a bottle of tiger pods the same day we added the mandarin. so we concluded he starved. we are in the process of determining a next step. my husband (corey) is on marshreef (reefling) and i'll suggest finding one being sold there. thank you both so much for the help.