Fish going missing???

[Pondweed]

I added 3 yellow striped cardinal over the weekend... tank established in current place for 2 months. Before that it has been running for 4+ years, new tank started with dry rock and fresh sand but all bio media from the old set up was used in sump (including all the live rock)

I lost one of my clownfish about 3 weeks ago, the small one then half its body turned up a few days later, no flesh so something ate it

then over the weekend added these 3, 2 have gone missing and today another carcass appears

Very confused, never had anything liek this before, the big clown and wrasse have been in there fine for ages now.

Any ideas on what it could be?

All water tests come up normal, since adding the new fish and before I have been adding bottled bacteria to cope with the new fish load some I wouldnt think it's ammonia or anything like that

 

[Snuffy The Seal]

what species of clowns and wrasse? bullying is the most likely answer. any cuc?

 

[Pondweed]

Just normal ocellaris clown, and melanarus wrasse, whenever i'm around everyone seems pretty chill. I've never seen any aggression and i'm home a lot at the moment with CV 19 having us all working from home..

CUC is 1x small hermit and a few turbo snails and 2x trochus

 

[Snuffy The Seal]

could be a hitchhiker from the old rock, i doubt anything in there would be able to strip a fish down to its bones like that. death is unknown, but a sick/peaceful fish make easy targets for aggressive inverts. try a trap/camera maybe?

 

[ca1ore]

The most likely, though least ‘interesting’, is that the fish died from disease and got reduced. Novice reefers often fail to appreciate how quickly a small fish carcass gets consumed. A couple of days to get to bones.

 

[Pondweed]

Yea, but 3 fish over the course of a few weeks I would think is odd, especially with the other 3 being completely unaffected?

 

[KrisReef]

Something is making lunch, for sure. Predation, but by whom is the mystery.

Edit, Oh, Sorry about the Cardinalfish. They are generally cool to watch in small schools.

 

[Pondweed]

I know! My only guess on predation would be the wrasse, with the old live rock the tank was up for 3 or 4 years and I have 0 losses and the new rock was dry so I wouldnt think there is anything sus. I'll keep an eye on it and recheck my params

Just wanted to check if anyone had some wild idea it could be

 

[KrisReef]

Actually, the other factor is that you changed the set up when you moved into the new tank. We used to tell folk adding new fish to rearrange the set-up to break down established territories. What you did was similar and it seems perhaps the old tank mates got territorial in the new digs?

That female clown might have decided she didn't like her old mate or else he didn't remember the correct dance for a new place so she booted hem?

All speculation, but I hope the tank calms down or you figure out what the issue(s) are and can fix them before more fish get taken out.