Vanishing fish

[AllieBdot]

Hi guys, yesterday I lost 5 firefish and 4 banggai. Both groups were fairly new additions. They were healthy and happy on Saturday. Notably missing Sunday. And today I went looking and shook rocks. I'd think with 9 missing fish I'd find some carnage but nope. No trace. Anyone care to take a guess what happened to them. My biggest fish is a 3 inch tang and my largest coral is a 4-5inch mushroom. Nothing in the tank is particularly large or carnivorous. All other fish are fine.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Take a CLEAN stick or rod and sweep gently through your gravel bed and see if either a work or large shrimp pops out. Either theyre jumping one by one or you may have a predator as pictured below:

 

[Michael Gray]

Dam that many missing. Something is eating or they are jumping. Overflow? Sump? Or u got a murder

 

[N.Sreefer]

I smell a mantis...

 

[AllieBdot]

Take a CLEAN stick or rod and sweep gently through your gravel bed and see if either a work or large shrimp pops out. Either theyre jumping one by one or you may have a predator as pictured below:

Gross. We did a tank transfer a couple months ago and cleaned the sand bed of all creepy crawl
ys. The weird part to me is the banggai hung out at the top corner of the tank between the overflow and the glass and the fire fish stayed together and hung out lower but in the rock work. So the same thing getting to them is blowing my mind.

 

[AllieBdot]

Dam that many missing. Something is eating or they are jumping. Overflow? Sump? Or u got a murder

Checked the overflow and sump. Checked the floor around the tank. Nothing.

 

[Michael Gray]

Checked the overflow and sump. Checked the floor around the tank. Nothing.

My fire fish vanished and I haven't found a body or or anything either. It's been 7 months. He's toast. Lol. Sucks some times. But that's one fish. Missing multiple within 1 night. Suspicious

 

[reefinatl]

What is the full list of fish in there and how big is the tank?

 

[AllieBdot]

Its 180 gallons we have:

Kole tang
Lemon peel angel
Copperband
Lyretail anthias
Gold cap goby
Yellow tail damsel
2 little blue damsels
3 little clowns
2 green chromis
Bi color chromis
Purple dottyback
Neon dottyback

Cuc is a couple emerald crabs, assorted snails, hermits and a couple of small cleaner shrimp.

We added 5 banggai and 6 fire fish (added separately and purchased at different stores) recently and have 1 of each left as of today.

Everybody is little and and we have plenty of hiding spaces. We haven't had bullying issues other than the occasional chase by the nasty little blue damsels.

The dottybacks are newer but the rest of the crew has been together for at least 6 months, many more than a year.

 

[AllieBdot]

What is the full list of fish in there and how big is the tank?

I wrote above but didn't hit reply

 

[reefinatl]

in a 180, my money is they are hiding somewhere. Wouldn't be surprised to take couple losses on non QT'd dump and go fish but I really doubt that 9 of them are gone within 2 days.

 

[zukihara]

 

[Gup]

I just had a similar problem two fish turning up missing. 2 days ago, I lost a six line wrasse. 2 days earlier, I lost a very small clown. There's no carcass, no nothing. They were speeding nicely am I the only thing they did at night that was similar, they slept close to the rocks. I'm suspecting it has to be the emerald crab.

Does that sound possible? Because I am at a total loss and it would be impossible to get that crap out

 

[JayA]

I had disappearing fish that were getting cleaned up quickly by the cuc. Honestly don't know who kills them - other fish in the tank or my crab, but I only twice caught the crab eating the dead fish. If I didn't view those moments, I wouldn't know where they went either...

 

[ying yang]

So what happenned?
Find any bobbit worms or why fish died

 

[Sharkbait19]

I feel like a mantis or Bobbit would have made itself known by now.
But those seem likely.
Unlikely that normal cuc wouldn’t leave at least something.

 

[Suohhen]

Damsels and dottybacks can be a true terror. Obv they wouldn't kill the fish directly but for new additions to be hiding, jumping, or going into the overflow is common when harassed. Have you thoroughly checked these places? I would highly recommend you set up a qt asap and toss any fish you do find in and any new addition in the future because adding peaceful fish to an established community always has its challenges.

 

[ying yang]

This critter went unnoticed for 2 years according to the subtitles and found it when stripped tank down at a lfs in england.
Said did little damage before found it so lucky them.
What amazes me is it split into 3 pieces when removed and put into empty tank.i am new to saltwater so my experience limited but i would say splitting into 3 is some kind of survival mechanism to save/ replicate itself probably.
Interesting to see but defo wouldnt like one in my tank ^_^

 

[Sharkbait19]

Damsels and dottybacks can be a true terror. Obv they wouldn't kill the fish directly but for new additions to be hiding, jumping, or going into the overflow is common when harassed. Have you thoroughly checked these places? I would highly recommend you set up a qt asap and toss any fish you do find in and any new addition in the future because adding peaceful fish to an established community always has its challenges.

This is a good point.
Aggressive fish will quickly remove any newcomers if it is a really mean one.

 

[Gup]

I had disappearing fish that were getting cleaned up quickly by the cuc. Honestly don't know who kills them - other fish in the tank or my crab, but I only twice caught the crab eating the dead fish. If I didn't view those moments, I wouldn't know where they went either...

Because of a severe injury, I had a tank crash three months after setup. Got reorganized, slowly,