Target Mandarin died..? please help

[surfinbird]

Hello, I recently purchased a young target mandarin. I put him in my tank I've been running for over a month now, temperature is at 79, nitrates are at zero, and so is ammonia level. I have a pink zipper zoa in, and thats doing fine, very alive and colorful. I have a 30 gallon tank. I have one blue t5 light and a white one. I also have a damsel. I had him to help with the cycling. Anyways, I came home today and the mandarin was dead. He was doing fine the first couple of days, but I think he might of starved? I put in copepods, but didn't turn the filter off because I wasn't informed until afterwards that they will get sucked in. What was the reason he died?

 

[Keithhjs]

It would take more than a couple days to starve. What kind of damsel was it as they are notoriously mean fish? Did the mandarin have any marks or damaged fins from being harassed? Also, they do best in an established tank.

 

[TheTodd]

Sometimes they are already starving by the time they are purchased. At best, they are extremely difficult to keep alive. I had one years ago that I added to a very established reef tank. It made it a week. It ate at the LFS, but would not eat in my tank for some reason. Your damsel could have been the problem if it was aggressive, at all, towards it.