Disappearing Fish

[ubiq]

In the past 3 months I've had several fish disappear from my 100g reef tank. In addition to fish, the tank has a porcelain crab, several conchs, two small anemones, a 1" sand substrate and about 60 pounds of dry rock. Surviving fish are angels, a blenny and one clownfish. MIA are three 2" angels. I've searched everywhere for them, including the sump and floor around the tank. No dice. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Sorry for your losses. How old is your tank? What type of anemones? Do you have any hermit crabs? Do you have circulation pumps (like vortech's) in your tank? EDIT: also do you have a lid on your tank?

 

[ubiq]

Have lid, 3 circulation pumps (with mesh screens), no hermits, Nems are RBTA's. Tank is about a year old.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Hmmm...
If we're eliminating the simple answers of 1) jumped out and your cat ate them, 2) they died and got sucked into circ pumps and shredded, or 3) they got sucked into your sump, then that doesn't leave a huge number of alternative options.
One possibility: they got sucked into your drain plumbing and are stuck in your pipes.
Another: you have an unidentified predator in your tank. One candidate would be a bobbit worm. Where did you get your rock? Was it live rock or dead rock?

 

[ubiq]

No cat. Pretty sure they're not dead in the tank as my Seneye would have registered the ammonia spike. Dead rock, initially, but I have occasionally glimpsed disturbingly large worms in the rocks, origin unknown. Perhaps hitchhikers on coral or chaeto. I wish there were some way to check the pipes.

 

[Gqch]

No cat. Pretty sure they're not dead in the tank as my Seneye would have registered the ammonia spike. Dead rock, initially, but I have occasionally glimpsed disturbingly large worms in the rocks, origin unknown. Perhaps hitchhikers on coral or chaeto. I wish there were some way to check the pipes.

some shy fish can hide very long time then shoeing up, that case happens to many peoples, hope this is your case if the water was alway ok

 

[BostonReefer300]

No cat. Pretty sure they're not dead in the tank as my Seneye would have registered the ammonia spike. Dead rock, initially, but I have occasionally glimpsed disturbingly large worms in the rocks, origin unknown. Perhaps hitchhikers on coral or chaeto. I wish there were some way to check the pipes.

How disturbingly large? Like Rodents of Unusual Size big?

 

[davidcalgary29]

No cat. Pretty sure they're not dead in the tank as my Seneye would have registered the ammonia spike.

Not necessarily. My IM40 was wiped out in a bleach accident and all seven fish died: while I was able to remove five, I never did find two of them, and the surviving CUC must have, well, cleaned up. NH3 registered between 0.001 and 0.003, but it'd been like that, off and on, for a week or two before the incident. I've found that NH3 readings can deteriorate dramatically in accuracy about ten days before the slide is set to expire.