Purple lobster?

direfishking27 · Jan 19, 2016

Hi I have had a purple lobster three clown fish and a butterfly fish in my tank and for a long time they were fine but recently with in the past 3-4 months my fish have begun to disappear no body no bones no ammonia spike they just vanish first with one clown then the next and then the butterfly fish but when I got home I was able to see the butterfly fish eyes gone gills gone and the tail gone in chunks like it was bitten off it wasn't dead for long but now I'm down to a clown fish and a purple lobster my parameters are in check my ammonia is at 0 my salinity is at 1.026 and my nitrate and nitrite are at 0 I have no idea what is going on I don't have an ro/di system so I use distilled water but I'm very worried that I have a killer in my tank please help

kireek · Jan 20, 2016

How large is your aquarium and how long has the system been running? I would take a educated guess that your reef lobster is attacking your fish.That's what they do,especially when they get established.

redfishbluefish · Jan 20, 2016

If you wait much longer, you'll be down to just one lobster.

It is most likely snagging the fish at night and eating them. It's what they do.

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

So what do I do should I give him away to a friend who has a lot of tanks and some with no fish I don't really want to loose him he's so pretty but I really don't want to loose and more fish either

redfishbluefish · Jan 20, 2016

You could try feeding the lobster more and see if that helps....but no guarantee.

trio91 · Jan 20, 2016

FWIW....I have kept one in the past and never had an issue....but I was feeding him veggie tabs when I fed the fish. for the most part, it was pretty shy and stayed away from the fish when he was fed. my assumption (and I by no mean am an expert on them) is that like mentioned, he was hungry and got them in their sleep

I have a pest mantis shrimp who I have yet to catch and I am assuming he is the cause of my lobsters "dismemberment"....one day I literally found the guys shell shattered in pieces but I can't say that was the reason for sure