Hole in my fish? Any help?

[sullbra]

There is a pretty decent size hole in the side of my Mandarin, a little smaller than the size of a pencil eraser. It looks like you can see into the fish. Also, the hole is a little white around the edges.
He seems to be acting normal, he just has a gaping hole in the side of him behind his side fin.
Also, when he goes near the cleaner shrimp, they tend to go straight to the hole, and it seems to upset the Mandarin.
Is this a bite, or a parasite. While he die?
Any advice? Prevention? notsure:
He is in reef tank with mainly SPS.

[hr]
size: 37 gal
enviroment: live rock/sand, 120 V compact, good to decent chemistry.
Live stock:cleaner shrimp, shrimp gobe, pistol shrimp, serpent star, percula clown, Cardinal, hermit crabs, snails, anenome crab, emerald crabs, horsehoe crab
Food: frozen brine/frozen myrid/flake/bloodworms

 

[sullbra]

here is a picture

 

[nm reef]

I can't help...but it doesn't look good. I'm going to move this thread over to the disease&treatment forum. Chances are you'll get better assistance over there. I hope you find a way to save it...they are extremely beautiful fish but sadly lots of them end up in systems that can't possibly sustain them long term.

 

[elfdoctors]

How much live rock do you have in your system?
Have you been lucky in getting it to eat dead food?
Beth usually recommends isolating fish with holes like that in a QT and treating with Maracyn 2. With a mandarin this could be the kiss of death (unless you happen to have an extra tank with lots of live rock). I hope one of the moderators with more experience will respond.

 

[sullbra]

Well, I have learned a lesson .. and that is not to buy these fish, especially AFTER reading all the books that say not to buy these fish becasue they have a great chance of starving. However, this is not the case with this Mandarin's failure. I have had him for a few months, and since I have a lot of live rock and live sand (approx 40-50lbs), he has been eating just fine, and I know becasue I have seen him picking at the rocks and getting big, and becasue I saw a dying Mandarin in a fish store the other day. I felt like it was being tortured becasue it was so thin - my mandarin was actually kind of fat.
But, becasuse I could not find any quick advice in the past two days from anyone here, or even from the place I bought him,. I had to put him down. I couldnt take the heartache of looking at him being prayed upon by the cleaner shrimp and even the serpent star. It was almost as if they new he was dying so they kept picking at his hole.
So, word of advice, leave these fish with those who can feed these fish, and also take care of them if they get sick, if not, leave them in the wild (dont buy them).
Genesis 1:21
:nope:

 

[harlequinnut]

I had one in my 46 bow reef tank that was doing well and eating brine. Sadly he commited suicide and went carpet surfing!

 

[beth]

Can you give some details. Is that eroding that occured over time, or something that happened overnight? Is it a result of a wound??
I'm going to try and get Terry's attention for adivse.

 

[sullbra]

no, i did not treat the fish with anything, becasue it looked like this happend within a couple days. The first day I noticed it, it looked like just the skin was off the fish, then the second morning the hole got deeper, and when I got home, it was very deep. So, I did not want the fish to suffer so I put him down.
Plus, I only have a couple fish, and my tank is mainly a reef tank, so I dont keep an extra running tank (yet). So, I did not medicate, thinking it could harm the corals. Is there a way to medicate IN a reef tank?