Murder.... Serpent Star or Coral Banded?

[bdhough]

RIP Streak....

My fish is gone. My very first salt fish(green chromis) disappeared in the last day. He was in my tanks 2 and a half years.... He was not sick. He was always up in the top of the tank with the other green chromis searching for food. He always fed. Never once did he miss a feeding since day one.
He's most definitely gone now though. I added a Serpent Star and a Coral Banded to my tank roughly a month ago. Either could be the culprit but I'm not sure. From what I know the Green Serpent Stars are known predators but this guy is not green, see pic. He is however pretty fat but I make sure he gets his share of food. I also feed the coral banded and we've all heard the stories of them.
The reason I think its either/or is because my peppermint shrimp are missing too. They were about a year old. They always came out to feed as well and the last week i have only seen one of them. I had 3. I fed tonight and didn't see the last one. With the tongan nassarius snails and other critters in my tank a body would disappear over night.
I must figure out the culprit before i loose my mated blue and yellow tails or my clown, or anyone else. Let me know if you think the serpent is bad or not.

 

[bdhough]

bumpity bump

 

[ophiura]

Hmmmm.......
That's a tough one.
Because it could realistically be either. KNow that coral banded could definitely be nasty nasty. Especially to other shrimp but definitely a possibility with fish aslo.
It is possibly also the serpentstar. Without finding them with the fish in hand it is impossible to tell, personally. My 2 specimens of that serpent are extremely passive. I can't get a reaction from them if I feed two days in a row. It seems the could care less for more food at that time.
IME, I would say the coral banded is the more likely culprit. But it is possible either is.

 

[speg]

another vote for the coral banded.

 

[puffer32]

Oh yeah,, well I say it was the serpant star! I had an orange one and i actually saw half my chromis sticking out of the center of the star!!! It was so sickneing to see! I disliked that star from then on, actually got rid of it as soon as i could catch it, which took awhile.

 

[ophiura]

The problem is this: We usually don't like to admit that a fish may die. We assume something caught it, and blame them for it. But things do die, and we have animals in their to clean them up...so they get the blame when I don't think they always deserve it.
But IME, coral banded shrimp are nasty little beasts. DEFINITELY a threat to the other shrimp (wouldn't have put them together myself).

 

[fishnerd]

If your serpant ate the chromis, it would show a deformity from where it is digesting the chromis. Coral Bandeds are very aggressive against other shrimp. I would blame the CBS for the shrimp, but I don't know about the chromis.

 

[puffer32]

In defense of the star, the fish may have died and the star ate his carcass, it just gave me a creepy feeling seeing half my fish sticking out of the star. Don't know about any deformities, because the star disappeared for weeks after and when I next saw him I didn't notice anything odd about him, but then i couldn't look at him without shuttering, i just gave him to my brother when I tore down my tank looking for a dead anenome.

 

[bdhough]

I was aware that CBS were pretty nasty going in to getting one. I have seen them with other shrimp before and thought it would be ok if i fed him regularly. Apparently my gamble didn't work. As for the fish maybe he did just die.... He was probably at least 3 years old if not 4. I don't know the average life span of salt fish but i've heard of many species living 10 years.....
I have posted elsewhere and the peppermint shrimp were never addressed. Thanks for the insight.... I will place the watch on the CBS. Knock on wood for my other fish....

 

[magooo2]

Another vote for the coral banded. I have a big

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myself and would love to get rid of him. It would require me to dissasemble the entire tank to catch him tho. He has reaked havoc on the bottom of my tank for going on 3 years. :yes: