Mandarin Fish

[ekvikmost]

I purchased a mandarin yesterday and brought him home, acclimated him, and put him in the tank. He immediately went to the back of the tank behind the live rock. 5 hours later I noticed him acting strangely as if he was throwing himself against the back of the tank and flipping himself over and then he was dead.
Tested all my levels which were fine. All my other fish are fine.
Anyone ever heard of this? Any ideas of what could have caused this?
Temps are fine, all other fish are fine, lots of live rock and live sand.
Thanks,
Karen

 

[fishgeek01]

Sounds to me like acclimation stress, how did you do your acclimation

 

[durgeonman]

Originally Posted by Fishgeek01
Sounds to me like acclimation stress, how did you do your acclimation
i agree sounds like that would do it.

 

[cyclops]

How did you acclimate your manderine. I agree with everyone else sounds like stress.

 

[ekvikmost]

I don't have the ability to do the drip method so I floated the bag and added some of my water to the water in the bag and brought it to temperature and put him in the tank.

 

[fishgeek01]

It is important to not only acclimate for temp but also for ph and hardness. When you acclimate you should add a little of your water every 15-30 mins over about a 2 hour period for fish to match the ph and hardness. The drip method is obviously the best. When doing it in the bag without the drip method here is what i do
Start by floating to match temp. Add 1/2 cup water wait 20 min. Add 1/2 cup water wait 20 min. drain 50% of water from bag then add another 1/2 cup wait 20 min. add 1/2 cup wait 20 min. drain 50% of water from bag add 1/2 cup wait 20 min. add 1/2 cup wait 20 min net fish from bag, or use other method and put fish in qt tank. (or display if no qt) Never let fish bag water in your tank.

 

[greymach]

how long did the whole process take? you should leave the bag in the water for about 20 mins to get the tempatures the same then start adding water from your tank to the bag a little at a time over a period of 2 to 3 hours.

 

[ekvikmost]

I obviously did this completely wrong and I now see that. From now on I will add the water every 20 minutes like you said. I was worried that the fish would die in the bag if left that long. Also, I have never acclimated any of my other fish like that and have not had any problem.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[drea]

why can't u use the drip method? buy that air liner tubing stuff, its very easy to do and worry free.......... trust me u will love it, let us now if you need help/suggestions

 

[jktenpro]

I like to test the LFS water(ph, salinity, etc) to see how far the numbers are off with my quarantine and acclimate accordingly, but I agree the drip method is usually prefered, easy to do and what I use.