Fish murder mystery

MurphTech · May 18, 2019

Good morning everybody,

I am frustrated and stumped. I have a nice 29G take going for about 2 months now. Inside you will find a little bit of everything including a murder mystery that includes missing bodies.

Current Fish: 2 Clowns
1 Black & Gold Chromis
1 Watchman Goby

Inverts: About 10 of some snails of various species
1 Tuxedo Urchin
1 scarlet hermit
2 very small electric blue hermits
1 Fire Shrimp
1 Bristle star that I discovered not that long ago (hitch hiker with live rock?)

The removed: 1 Bumble Bee Snail - he was eating other snails

Victims: 1 Six Line Wrasse
1 Red Ruby Dragonet (I have a lot of cope-pods all over the glass and even added a bag of them on top of what I saw before purchasing)

The missing: Royal Purple Gramma
Amethyst Anthias (Was not planning on keeping)

Additional details - I got the a deal on the Amethyst Anthias, Red Ruby, and the Black & Gold Chromis this week. 1 missing and one dead so far.

The first to have died was the six line wrasse. The only fish in the tank during it's death was the clowns, the royal gramma, the watchman, the urchin, a few snails, and the fire shrimp.

The royal gramma always chased it around but he was always faster and seemed to manage it okay. That's when I got the three pack to replace him. I planned on giving the amethyst away to the LFS who said they would take him. The three pack was added Wednesday.

Last night I was the Red Ruby Dragonet was found dead by the conch shell the clowns hang out in. The urchin is currently inside it too. I decided today I would investigate the tank since I have not seen the Gramma or the Anthias since Thurday. This included moving around all of the live rock to check inside them and under them. No bodies were found. I have also checked around the tank and don't see any fish outside the tank.

I will also note the Wrasse and the Red Ruby seemed to have small chunks missing from them. The wrasse by its pectoral fin and the red ruby under its belly. Both appeared not too deep and bout the circumference of a q-tip head, maybe a little smaller.

I am not sure what to do next. The clowns are very territorial of their shell but I never really seen them look like they were going to kill any of their mates. They just chase them away from the shell and are peaceful on the other side of the tank. I thought the Gramma was the killer and was planning on finding him today to bring him back to the LFS today, but where is it now? Now with him missing and the Anthias missing my next suspects are the clowns but I don't know.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this CSI episode?

I don't have all the fancy equipment outside of a API Master Kit but and all parameters are normal.

Temp: 79
PH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 ppm

Picture of the scene:

Big G · May 18, 2019

Very likely it is the clowns. Despite their funny name those guys can be really aggressive. A lot of the aggression can happen as the lights are going down or off. Lots of reefers have the scars on their hands from clown bites. And one actually had his clown bite him on the eye when he was doing some maintenance on the tank leaning over it. Yikes!

MurphTech · May 18, 2019

OMG, a scene out of a cheesey 80's horror movie! I could see that leaving an infection in the eye. The clowns did attack me during my investigation so I kept it quick.

What about the missing fish? I will admit the clowns intimidated me a little and I am charging my boroscope camera for a safer and more through look through the rock in a bit but they aren't that small. I was sure they would have been found.

Could the shrimp have ate both? The shrimp has molted twice since me owning him for about 3 weeks. It molted the first night I had him and last night again.

Zos4me · May 18, 2019

maybe some kind of worm hiding in the rock?Big Bobbitt or something

MurphTech · May 18, 2019

If that thing is in my tank I am going to light it all on fire. I feel like I would see that in there. The rock isn't that large. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is perhaps they are buried in the sand. The gyre does kick up some sand on occasion with it's random setting. I will sift through it with the scope.

ca1ore · May 18, 2019

Is it possible you have some lurking boogeyman attacking and killing your fish, yes; is it likely, no. It is much more likely your fish just died and got reduced. It is always surprising to the reefing novice how quickly this happens, thus the frequency of ‘my fish went missing’ threads. I’ve had small fish completely vanish in my QT tank in a day or two where there is no invert cleanup crew and very few places to hide. If the chunks out of your two fish were there before they died then some credence to them having been attacked; if after they died, then it’s more likely to be postmortem scavenging.

Perhaps there is some kind of disease in your tank, or perhaps the shipping/acclimation process got them. No real mystery, frankly, and no need to go searching for flipper-the-ripper.

MurphTech · May 18, 2019

Mystery: SOLVED

After an aggressive search and seizure through the clown's home (large conch shell) we have found our missing and deceased victims inside the conch shell. Both the Gramma and the Anthias have been found dead inside. I think the urchin has been feeding on the dead fish inside the conch.

My theory is that perhaps the paired clowns felt this conch shell was a an anemone and they were trying to feed it small fish.

I don't know but Bonny and Clyde have to go! Off to the LFS to see if I can get a deal cut with them.

egwich · May 18, 2019

MurphTech said:
If that thing is in my tank I am going to light it all on fire. I feel like I would see that in there. The rock isn't that large. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is perhaps they are buried in the sand. The gyre does kick up some sand on occasion with it's random setting. I will sift through it with the scope.

I know the mystery has been solved, but I wanted to let you (and everyone else) know that you will not see a big Bobbit. I have a 55 gallon tank. It's been about a year I've had it. Had two fish deaths. Put out a piece of cocktail shrimp and put it under a cup, the next morning found the worm hanging outside the rock all the way to inside the cup and eating the shrimp. So I removed the rock and killed the Bobbit in the process (never put the rock back in). I kept baiting just in case and have removed 4 Bobbit's and 4 rocks ....and there is ANOTHER one for sure that I know of. My live rock brought at the bare minimum, 5 Bobbit Worms into my tank and the only time I have seen them is setting up traps for them.

egwich · May 18, 2019

In fact, I would go so far as to say that 20% of anyone who reads that story above probably has a Bobbit Worm in their tank from their live rock and has NO IDEA.

MurphTech · May 18, 2019

While I cannot saw with 100% certainty that I don't have one, I literally took everything out of my tank to catch the clownfish to bring them back to the LFS. No monsters from the deep were discovered.

The LFS was really nice and helped me get a new population going so hopefully I have new fish who will all get along. Otherwise I'll change strategies and start a Battle Royal tank.

Thanks to everyone who checked out the thread, those who followed, and the four of you for your insight and opinions. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Jon Snell · May 30, 2019

MurphTech said:
While I cannot saw with 100% certainty that I don't have one, I literally took everything out of my tank to catch the clownfish to bring them back to the LFS. No monsters from the deep were discovered.

The LFS was really nice and helped me get a new population going so hopefully I have new fish who will all get along. Otherwise I'll change strategies and start a Battle Royal tank.

Thanks to everyone who checked out the thread, those who followed, and the four of you for your insight and opinions. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Battle Royal bobbit worms vs mantis shrimp. Place your bets please. My money's on the mantis shrimp