Magic Fish "they keep vanishing"

[novice150]

I think I already know the answer to this question, but Im hoping Im wrong. Over the course of the past year, I have had several fish disappear. I have only found 1 or 2 dead fish. The others just vanish. The only fish that I have found were the two that did appear to be sick. The rest, were there one night, doing fine, and gone in the morning.
I do have anenomes (quite big) in the 150. And I have brittle stars in both the 150 and 300. Both the tanks are sealed, and I am sure they are not jumping out. I have searched everywhere for these fish. Even under and behind rocks.
I figure I have one or more of the following problems.
#1- The grim reaper lives in my tank.
#2- My brittle's are the culprit.
#3- The anenomes are ambushing them.
#4- I have a mantis.
Heres my questions. What is the likelyhood I have had a mantis for nearly two years and not noticed? Is this possiable? How loud are the clicks they make?
Are brittles really predatory? Would a 9-10" daimeter brittle be capable of killing a 4-5" angel? Or a 7" diamond goby?
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd really appreciate it. Some of my favorite fish have disappeared, and this is getting expensive.

 

[novice150]

Thanks for the quick response. 1 more question. Do you know how loud the clicks are that people hear from a mantis? Or how often they are heard?
Thanks again

 

[fishymissy]

The clicking is loud enough to be noticable. Like when you snap your fingers or fairly close to it. They will vary on the amount of clicks they do. The one I had would sometimes click away several times a night, every night, then stop for a week or better.
Another option for the missing fish is if you have a good clean up crew. If a fish dies and you have a large amount of crabs and snails, they can clean up a corpse in no time.
HTH

 

[ilove2ride]

The mantis click for small ones is like when you click slightly long fingernails together- at least thats how mind sounded. Look for holes in your LR that are perfect in diameter- then look and see if there is any 'sand' coming out. If there is, there could be a mantis. I tried traps for my matis, but it only trapped my starfish! The best way was to finally just take out its rock.
Good luck

 

[novice150]

Originally posted by ijji:
<strong>#5 Alien abduction.
#6 Escape to ocean through "trap door" under live rock.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Ha ha. Very funny
Actually I received papers from the missing fish this evening. Turns out some are looking for severance pay, and the others alimony.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I will get to the bottom of this one way or the other.