Mandarin attacked!

[RAB22]

Hi Folks, im having a spot of trouble identifying the bully in my tank, i introduced a mandarin dragonet a couple days ago to my 65 gallon tank which also has two ocellaris clowns, a regal tag, a yellow tang, a sixline wrasse and a cleaner shrimp, when i went to check on the little guy after his first night he'd been pretty beat up, most of his fins showed some signs of ripping and a couple of them are in a real state, also it looks as though he may have a bit of damage to one of his eyes.

So i kept a close eye on the tank last night to see if i could find the culprit, the mandarin spent virtually the entire night hiding in a corner of the tank occasionally swimming out to have a look but none of the other fish seemed pay attention when he done this, he hasn't eaten any live foods i've offered him as of yet but i was told that they can be a bit fussy at first anyway.

So i have a couple of questions, firstly which is the likely offender whos been attacking the poor guy & secondly will he recover from his injuries?

Tank parameters:
1 yr old
quite a bit of live rock not sure exactly how much in weight
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Proetin Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
Button Polyp Colony
Mushroom Coral Colony

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Copepod]

Looks like anyone with the Cleaner Shrimp exception, could be the culprit...I have a Clarkii Clown, and I know they can be viscious if they want to...but never had ocellaris so not sure..I have read where some wrasses can be mean...no firsthand knowledge, but would bet probably him. How big is the Tang?

 

[ezy33]

Mandarins can be oblivious to other fishes territories. I suspect the clowns are guarding their home. My female maroon clown will take on all comers to her territory including the hand that feeds her. Wrasses can pick on smaller and weaker fishes.

When I introduce a new fish I always feed the tank and turn off the lights for several hours. This gives the new comer a chance to find a hiding spot. With a good feeding the homeys will be less likely to think the newbie is food or a trespasser.

 

[melosu58]

My guess would be the sixline. I know several folks that say they can get quite mean. Basically it could be anyone. Hopefully you`ll catch the fish that is doing it.

 

[RAB22]

After going into my LFS (which have been very good with advice for me so far) i had a chat with the most knowledgeable member of their staff and she reckons that it's almost indefinitely a rogue crab which has hitchhiked in on a piece of rock as the level of damage that has been done overnight is way too extreme for a fish attack, so i'm gonna try to bait it out and get rid of it if it is indeed a crab.

What are you guy's thought's on this?

P.S i dont think it's the clowns as they've never shown an ounce of aggression towards anything in the tank other than each other and they are also a lot smaller than the mandarin.

 

[Copepod]

Anything's possible...but for the clowns....my Clarkii is only 1 1/2 inches long and he tore a poor Turbo snail apart because it was on a piece of LR that had a Goby in it he was hosting.

I still say the wrasse though....hope you find out..

 

[thincat]

In my experience it almost would have to be a crab of some kind. Mandarins just taste to awful. I had a bi-color chromis that I saw take a bite at my Mandarin and he was shaking his head and spitting stuff out. I think the slime on the Mandarin is part of it's defence.