Which coral ate my 3 fish?

[Arcticreef]

In the past 4 weeks I have lost 3 fish, all of them between 2-10 days new to the tank. The first was a nervous dispar anthia, the second a gorgeous 1.5 inch coral beauty and 3rd was a 2.5 inch diamond sandsifting goby. The first possibly hid and starved to death. But the others were eating well, mixing with other fish and just enjoying life. The goby was spewing sand and doing its thing. It disappeared 5 days after receiving it so even if it wasn't eating it wouldn't have died of starvation that quickly?

Since my tank has a firm fine mesh lid, my basement sump access is blocked by the overflow box with narrow flow slits and im cautious of having the lid open after my cleaner wrasse jumped and ended in the aircon vent (and survived) I've ruled out those escape routes. My CUC is one very polite hermit crab, 1 scarlet skunk and 3 lazy peppermint shrimp and lots of various snails. The other fish are a purple tang, clown tang, 2 clownfish, 2 Rollands damsels, 1 blue green chromis, 1 mandarin, 1 yellow Coris wrasse, 1 cleaner wrasse, 1 firefish, 1 Royal dottyback, 1 filefish and one yellow watchman goby. And they all seem pretty happy.

My 100 gallon tank has a 40 g sump and the water params are good except maybe for a 0.09 Po4 at the time of the incident. It has lots of hiding places but not enough to have a toxic build up of poison water pockets i read about elsewhere. I also rearranged a few rocks to look for them. So my thoughts turn to my coral. Specifically my large BTA and my gigantic elegance coral.

I've recently begun to get minor tingles when they touch my skin but I'm sure the fish could survive the touch. But are these able to catch and swallow whole healthy fish? My elegance is rather fond of nassarius escargot on occasion. My less intelligent clownfish won't go near them but I've seen the diamond goby swim over and through the tentacles of the elegance. In fact my yellow watchman and a peppermint shrimp have shacked up together and are living underneath the elegance fleshy folds in fishy sin. So is it the BTA then that grabbed a careless fish? Problem was the coral beauty never really travelled to that side of the tank.
It's not the loss of $200 but losing pretty fish that were hard to get where I live. So I'm weary to get more. At a loss as to why 2 disappeared within 4 days of eachother.

 

[Qasimja]

i dont see any of those corals or anemone you mentioned eating those fish

 

[Reef - Tripp]

How much is established, did you add some new stone, you hear popping at night, it could be a mantis shrimp

 

[ccole]

I’d guess aggression from tank mates would be more likely to kill new fish than one of those corals. How is your clown tang? Those can be very aggressive.

 

[Arcticreef]

How much is established, did you add some new stone, you hear popping at night, it could be a mantis shrimp

Was all dry life rock from a year back. No additional crustaceans I think.. Although last week I 'surgically' removed a Gall crab from my trachy brain coral. So you never know.

 

[Arcticreef]

I’d guess aggression from tank mates would be more likely to kill new fish than one of those corals. How is your clown tang? Those can be very aggressive.

The clown is greedy and clumsy and will get traded before he gets too big for the tank. He looks innocent but perhaps he bullies behind the rocks.

 

[Tamberav]

I have two very large BTA and elegance. Would say chances are slim they would eat a fish. Most fish know not to touch them.

You have some potentially aggressive fish and bullying sometimes happens at night over sleeping spots.

You didn't have the fish very long which is a big red flag that sometimes may have been wrong or they simply didn't adjust to your tank.

 

[Onewolf]

Does your overflow weir/drain have an actual rigid cover or do you depend on the mesh tank cover? 2 of my fish got into the overflow weir/drain when the tank was covered with a mesh lid, but no rigid cover on the overflow weir. Have you checked your overflow weir/drain?

I subsequently got a rigid cover for the overflow weir/drain and no more missing fish.

 

[Arcticreef]

Does your overflow weir/drain have an actual rigid cover or do you depend on the mesh tank cover? 2 of my fish got into the overflow weir/drain when the tank was covered with a mesh lid, but no rigid cover on the overflow weir. Have you checked your overflow weir/drain?

I subsequently got a rigid cover for the overflow weir/drain and no more missing fish.

I have two very large BTA and elegance. Would say chances are slim they would eat a fish. Most fish know not to touch them.

You have some potentially aggressive fish and bullying sometimes happens at night over sleeping spots.

You didn't have the fish very long which is a big red flag that sometimes may have been wrong or they simply didn't adjust to your tank.

Thanks Tamberav. If it's not the coral then the prime bullies might be the tangs and the dottyback? The goby was big and healthy and was on the side the dottyback lived in. Didn't think it was killer material but who knows. Must have been a swift attack and death at night?

Does one have to expect a few deaths while the optimum blend of fish is determined? I assume you can't always get it right immediately unless you choose very timmid fish completely.

 

[Arcticreef]

Does your overflow weir/drain have an actual rigid cover or do you depend on the mesh tank cover? 2 of my fish got into the overflow weir/drain when the tank was covered with a mesh lid, but no rigid cover on the overflow weir. Have you checked your overflow weir/drain?

I subsequently got a rigid cover for the overflow weir/drain and no more missing fish.

Good questions. The overflow is completely sealed except for the inflow weir..thin slits. The tank mesh lid is heavy and firm. I inspected the sump just in case it osmosed into the overflow but then it would end in a sock or blasted around in the first section where the water enters. Nothing spotted. Bermuda triangle tank.