dying YWG?

[rz1a]

i've had this ywg almost for a year, i think when i got it was mature, pretty sure it was mature but not sure how old

i hadnt seen her in a few weeks, i figured it must have been eating once the lights were out.

i look into the tank with the moonlights and i see the YWG out, but its gasping for air? who do i see next to it? the mandarin goby. i turned on one of the actinics and i see the goby staring at the YWG buy flaring his high dorsal? fin at it. since ive had the goby and seen it wander around pecking a the copepods, ive never seen it do that. maybe because of too much flow, but that was a first

so im thinking either the YWG died because of lack of food, but i feed every other day with flakes, cyclo, and i cut out raw shrimp, pellets once in a while too; maybe it died because it was getting too old?; or maybe my goby wanted to kill him off to take over the YWG's cave (ha doubt it)

but seriously, whats up with the mandarin flaring at the YWG like that?

[rz1a]

its kind of spazzing out. doesnt look like itll make it. i thought all along it was dead. i think i jinxed it when i was thinking of making my next upgrade BB and was wondering what to do with the YWG if i found it alive. weird

[Kristy]

Hope your yellow watchman is okay. We have both a yellow watchman and also a mandarin. I don't see any chance that the mandarin is killing it for the cave; they are generally considered one of the most peaceful species around.

About two months ago, our yellow watchman completely spazzed out. He has always stayed in his little cave and comes out a few times a day, definitely comes out to feed every evening and occasionally to run someone off that is getting too close to the cave (including our bigger mandarin, by the way). But on this day, he started swimming all around the tank out in the open, which he had NEVER done, and was just almost spasming with his very excited swimming pace. We were almost certain that he was a goner because he was acting so strange. This lasted for almost 24 hours when he finally, very disoriented, found his way back to his cave. He has been living there peacefully ever since, eating well and seeming happily grumpy as usual. All good!

Hope this is the case for yours!

[Kristy]

Of yeah, forgot to mention about the mandarin "flaring its dorsal fin." Our female never did that til we brought the male in to join her. Our male shows off his in the reflection of the glass from time to time. Supposed to be sort of a show of dominance, but also part of the mating display.

[rz1a]

i just found out it was a male not long ago. maybe like 3 days ago. i was looking at it and noticed a long thing needle on the back and realized it was a male. when i bought it i just thought it was a female

also, it turns out the ywg died within that night. not sure what happened. she would always come out and eat when i turned off the powerheads, but i noticed it stopped doing that. i figured it was too shy and would eat anything left over at night. when i woke up, the ywg was covered with bristleworms, snails, webs from snails around, and the damsel in the tank was also pecking at it.

only other thing i could think is that maybe as the YWG was crawling around through the back of the tank, and must have scared the dwarf lionfish?