Help!?!?!?!?!

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

We had stocked the tank as far as we wanted to. Then it started. Fish disappearing. I moved the carpet to the 55. It didn't stop. In the past two months we have had the following come up missing. NO ammonia spikes. Nitrates read just enough to know there are fish in the tank. Nitrites, like Ammonia are negligable. Standard 180 with a 29 gallon sump and small fuge. No fish in the overflows or below. I have about an inch and a half of sand, I can see most of the engineers tunnels from under the tank. Back of the hood has plastic mesh to prevent escapes, front has the hood and we have no household pets. Everything but the base rock was out of the tank two weeks ago while trying to catch a coral nipping lemon peel. The rocks were looked over to make sure no fish were hiding in them before placed on black plastic on the floor.

The missing fish list... (since the carpet left the tank)

4 Chromis
1 firefish
4 dispar anthia
2 cherub angels (actually replaced the first one when it disappeared)
1 lawmower blenny
2 scissor tail gobies
1 royal gramma
in the last 24 hours 1 chromis and between 7 am and 3 pm a long tenticle anemone.

We are down to a foxface, two clowns, 1 firefish, 1 carpenter wrasse, the engineer and 2 chromis. Naturally I am not buying anything else
until we figure this out.

Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

I guess I should say that we, like most in the hobby spend a lot of time in front of our tank. I work nights so on the weekends I am in there with a flash light on and off. I am in there with a flashlight every morning when I come home. I have never seen anything unusual. We only have 4 emerald crabs, 1 hermit crab, 2 cleaner shrimp and a purple urchin in the tank aside from the fish.

NanaReefer · Mar 27, 2014

Have you looked under any and all furniture near by? Very perplexing!

Neon Reef · Mar 27, 2014

If they wedged themselves as many fish due prior to dying as a form of protection, then most likely your clean up crew did their job. Sorry about your losses.

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

NanaReefer said:
Have you looked under any and all furniture near by? Very perplexing!

No furniture near by. It is in an entryway for the den and is against a brick wall with a cedar shingle wall on the other side. Ceramic tile floor.

the floor would have to be riddled with dead fish or at least the smell by now.

My CUC consists of the four emeralds, one hermit, two cleaner shrimp and snails. The Hermit is visible 99% of the time. The cleaners are always in the same place and I can't see a few emeralds and snails consuming this many fish fast enough to keep the ammonia down.

I thought bristle or even bobbit worm but really don't have the sand bed for it. Whatever it is would have to have some size on it by now, the anthias were 3 inches long as were the chromis. The scissortails were 4 inchers.

Tahoe61 · Mar 27, 2014

Where did you get the rock? Is it possible you have an Octopus?

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

We bought the entire set up last june. It was an established tank but the few fish that were in it were still in it when we brought the tank down. Rock sat in tubs for 3 day (wet but cold). New water with bio-spira and ran for 3 weeks before livestock moved over. We still have 4 of the original fish.

Would i have seen an octopus by now?

At the risk of tank implosion is it time to pull all of the rock out, inspect it and maybe go as far as boiling (or something) the rocks without coral growing on them?

YHSublime · Mar 27, 2014

Could be a bobbit, they can wedge into rock real tight ...

Tahoe61 · Mar 27, 2014

I doubt an Octopus would survivie a cycling tank. Octopi can be extremely nocturnal and in that large of a tank is could go unseen. I doubt that is an Octopi though since you bought an established tank, typically they come in on un-cured liverock. Sounds as though you do have a predator though. You do not have a Serpent Star right?

Emeralds can get large and bold.

Do not boil the rocks. First you should probably start with some traps.

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

I am putting a piece of krill on a tooth pick after lights go out. One end of the tank something keeps upsetting a zoa colony and most of the missing fish and anamone slept on.

If its gone when i get home from work...

Coke bottle trap or something more sophistocated?

Johnnyredd · Mar 27, 2014

We do have two lazy hand fed brittle stars and a good sized (crabzilla) emerald.

iretthepirate · Mar 28, 2014

Interesting time for night vision goggles! That sucks hope u find out what it is

TriggerThis · Mar 28, 2014

Deff a predator. Like an eel or frog fish, stone fish,
How long was the tank going before the fish started disappearing?
You have to establish a timeline of when the killings started and what changes happened just before that time.

tyler1503 · Mar 28, 2014

Have you heard any loud clicks coming from the tank? It sounds like it could be a mantis shrimp.

Johnnyredd · Mar 28, 2014

Well. Here is a (another?) twist. We had a carpet in the tank. We had missing fish then, also. I assUmeD that the carpet was the culprit. Long story but when a shy scissortail backed into the carpet... last straw. The carpet went to live in the 55.

So the list above is since the carpet moved out in January but I can state that nothing has been added to the tank or the sump since June of last year except for one brand spanking new white dry rock.

There were 3 toothpicks put into the tank with silverside pieces on them. Snails claimed two. The third... our red crab came over the rock work, snatched it up, toothpick and all and went back behind the rocks. We have him, who is pretty good sized and then a large emerald. Oddly enough they are on "that" end of the tank.

Thanks, folks, maybe soon I get this figured out.