HELP ALL FISH DISAPPEARING DOWN TO 1!!!!

[Kris 2020]

I had something like that once - and could not solve it. It was in a 29g with the most rock per gallon I've ever tried and a tight lid. And while I can't say for sure I figured it out, I will say that when I broke that tank down, I found a lot of very large and healthy hitchhikers that I never knew were there in the rockwork. I think one or more of them ate my missing 2 or 3 fish.

I was taking down a tank to move it and found at 15ish" fireworm. 39 gallon AIO. Never saw him or knew he was there. Glad I was wearing reef gloves when he found me. I didn't have anyone regularly disappearing tho. Its amazing what can live in the tank that you never see...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thats a lot of potentially larger fish in 6 months in a tank that is 6 mo old and still in essence cycling through up and down parameters.
You would need to change Some water weekly, and I question the test kits results you are/were getting and what type of test kit you are using.
With risk already to having this many fish, what is your current tank temperature and salinity reading. When tank temps go up, and oxygen levels drop Unless you have heavy aeration and effective filtration. If above 80 degrees, things start happening.
Up to the time they started to perish, any heavy breathing, loss of appetite, unusual skin blemishes or salt grain looking objects on their skin ?

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Check this out here is mine he lived under that almost 2ft wide Hollywood stunner chalice and notice all other corals gone. Note this is a 4 ft long tank and see how big he was compaired

 

[apcoleman]

Bobbit worm?

 

[Rbell93]

Thats a lot of potentially larger fish in 6 months in a tank that is 6 mo old and still in essence cycling through up and down parameters.
You would need to change Some water weekly, and I question the test kits results you are/were getting and what type of test kit you are using.
With risk already to having this many fish, what is your current tank temperature and salinity reading. When tank temps go up, and oxygen levels drop Unless you have heavy aeration and effective filtration. If above 80 degrees, things start happening.
Up to the time they started to perish, any heavy breathing, loss of appetite, unusual skin blemishes or salt grain looking objects on their skin ?

Tank cycled for 3-4 months, water change every week to every other week, test kits are sailfert i believe, tank is steady at 78, salinity steady at 1.026/1.027, and color and activitys was always normal

 

[Rbell93]

Check this out here is mine he lived under that almost 2ft wide Hollywood stunner chalice and notice all other corals gone. Note this is a 4 ft long tank and see how big he was compaired

If i find that in it, its no longer a reef tank its a worm tank and its his! LOL

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tank cycled for 3-4 months, water change every week to every other week, test kits are sailfert i believe, tank is steady at 78, salinity steady at 1.026/1.027, and color and activitys was always normal

salinity slightly high. Should be 1.024-1.025 but not likely cause.
When you say normal- can you produce other numbers for AMMONA, NITRATE, PH, PHOS,
iS YOUR TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW WHERE SUNLIGHT HITS IT FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS EACH DAY ?

 

[((FORDTECH))]

If i find that in it, its no longer a reef tank its a worm tank and its his! LOL

I did make him his own 20 gallon tank kept for about 1.5 years gave home bunch of pvc fittings and pipe he made his own underground travel system seemed very intelligent to me would eat pellet food and was great conversation tank but most time hide unless feeding so then tried to sell for 20$ and got a bunch of calls from people who just wanted to talk about it and say how cool it was but no one wanted it eventually posted for free and still got same phone calls wow that’s so cool wish I had a tank for it but still no one took it so like 6 months after that capped him in the pvc and put in trash.

 

[Rbell93]

salinity slightly high. Should be 1.024-1.025 but not likely cause.
When you say normal- can you produce other numbers for AMMONA, NITRATE, PH, PHOS,
iS YOUR TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW WHERE SUNLIGHT HITS IT FOR A COUPLE OF HOURS EACH DAY ?

Sorry, ammonia: 0 dont really see it, nitrate 3 ppm, ph 8.1, phos .03

 

[((FORDTECH))]

The fact here remains that the fish are all gone disappearing so this has to be some sort of predator unless they jump out of tank and cat eats them which is possible. Do you have any cats?

 

[Rbell93]

The fact here remains that the fish are all gone disappearing so this has to be some sort of predator unless they jump out of tank and cat eats them which is possible. Do you have any cats?

Nope no pets or even any that vist, its strange isnt it! And while the fish are small they def arnt tiny so something would have to have some mass to go for them and completely consume. its def a mind bender

 

[vetteguy53081]

Run a rod thru your gravel bedding throughly without stirring up the tank and see if any predator pops out.
Do you hear any clicking sounds, which could be a mantis shrimp ?

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

The fact here remains that the fish are all gone disappearing so this has to be some sort of predator unless they jump out of tank and cat eats them which is possible. Do you have any cats?

My cat found a jumper. He still scouts around the tank looking for treats.

 

[Rbell93]

Run a rod thru your gravel bedding throughly without stirring up the tank and see if any predator pops out.
Do you hear any clicking sounds, which could be a mantis shrimp ?

Just raked the sand no luck but thanks for the suggestion found 1 aptasia i took care of atleast! I havnt heard clicking but i just read that if you wait till night and turn red lights on a lot of critters can be found that way

 

[robbyg]

Check this out here is mine he lived under that almost 2ft wide Hollywood stunner chalice and notice all other corals gone. Note this is a 4 ft long tank and see how big he was compaired

Holly crap!! I found one about 12" long in my tank and I thought that was huge. This guys looks like he is 2.5ft long. That must be a world record.

 

[robbyg]

Okay so this is the weirdest issue..
I've had tank up for about 6 months (not including cycle). It is a 40 breeder with 20 gallon sump.
It HAD -2 clowns w/ a nem, 1" blue tang, 2" convict tang, flame angle all of which got along and never had issues
- other things are roughly 8 corals mixed, hermits, and snails, the corals have been growing great, all inverts still alive.
I havnt had any algae issues its been pretty easy going and successful project luckily.....until...
All of a sudden every other week i was losing a fish and i mean GONE. No body, no sign of sickness, moved every rock in tank to find, not on floor, not in kitchen, not in my car, not at work in my desk, not visiting the neighbors, GONE!
Also after each fish disappearance I got all parameters tested at LFS and nothing significant/bad ever popped up.
I saw my black/white clown last night at 10:15 before going to bed and at 7:15 this morning he was gone so im down to one last clown and thats it.
HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY because im convinced i have a robber or they are flopping to the toilet like finding nemo

I had the same experience twice. In both cases it turned out to be an Octopus in the tank. These guys can come in your tank at about 1/8" long and will hide in the rock work for months just contently feeding on any left over scraps that drift under the rock. Then they grow and grow until one day they go after a slow moving tiny fish. Once they get the hang of it they will go after bigger fish every week. I also noticed it was about one fish every 5-7 days. I was not able to pull out the rock work like you, but I suspect he kept the dead fish in a small rock opening and ate them over a period of days.
Eventually I spotted him at night with the Red LEDs turned on.

 

[Hugh Mann]

Following this one because I want to know the answer as to what is this mysterious slayer of fish. Definitely sounds like you got yourself a nasty hitchhiker.

You've got your one clown left still? Could set up a temporary holding tank to keep them safe. Then you could tear down your whole tank looking for the beast.

And when you do find it, get it taxidermied, put it on the wall above the tank, like a true monster hunter.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I had one of these before, sold to me as a conch snail..Cone Snail, took out every fish I had, 5 of them over a 2-3 day period.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/cone-snail

Also the cone Snails can kill an elephant with its sting, so if you do have one use super precautions.

 

[Rbell93]

I had the same experience twice. In both cases it turned out to be an Octopus in the tank. These guys can come in your tank at about 1/8" long and will hide in the rock work for months just contently feeding on any left over scraps that drift under the rock. Then they grow and grow until one day they go after a slow moving tiny fish. Once they get the hang of it they will go after bigger fish every week. I also noticed it was about one fish every 5-7 days. I was not able to pull out the rock work like you, but I suspect he kept the dead fish in a small rock opening and ate them over a period of days.
Eventually I spotted him at night with the Red LEDs turned on.

That is wild! If that what it ends up being i wouldnt mind a coral octopus tank lol

 

[brandon429]

skip fallow and quarantine= quick loss for many

what pathogens are able to wipe this as quickly team/cross species wipeout like that curious to know/ I dont read up on fish diseases but its easy to spot skip fallow skip qt patterns from fish disease posts.

they might not have had easily identifiable spots etc...

in no way has pathogen been ruled out, its ruled in until its ruled out. how they disappear, current explanations seem good to me.