My clown has vanished

[janis]

Hi
I am new to this but could someone please tell me how long it would take for my clown to be eaten if he died.
He was swimming quite happily at 2am and then by 4am there was no sign of him. We have checked everywhere he could be, pumps, filters etc. and can't see any signs of him left in the the tank.
At the moment we have 1 Female clown, I Yelow Tang, I Sixline Wrasse a few small crabs and 2 cleaner shrimp.
Is it possible to for them to eat him and have no signs left in such a short time.
We have only had the fish for 5 weeks and I am not sure if we should replace him straight away so the female clown has another mate.
The marine fish shop has just told me to beware incase we have a mantis that has come in the live rock, wouldn't we see it if it was in the tank.
Our tank is a new system and is only 10 weeks old, if a shrimp hatched from an egg in the rock that would be a baby.
Any suggestions as I just can't think what has happened to him.
Thanks

 

[janis]

Can anyone suggest anything please as if there is a chance he may still be alive somewhere I need to find him quick.
Thanks

 

[f1shman]

I'm not sure where he might be and mantis shrimp (if you did have one) are really really smart little critters that can hide in the rock pretty good. if you checked the filters and everything then I don't know, worst case scenario, he jumped out of the tank

 

[bigb]

Anyway he could've jumped out? look everywher around the tank, under furniture etc. I lost a maroon jumper and found him a couple days later between the wall and tank.

 

[janis]

Hi
Thanks for the reply. The tank is covered by glass and then by a wooden lid so there is no way he could have jumped out.
Is is possible for him to be totally eaten in a couple of hours? That is all I can think of what happend to him, but why would he just die in the first place, the water has tested fine and the three other fish seem ok.
Janis

 

[f1shman]

I don't think they could have ate him that fast, they usually don't realize hes dead for a bit, it might have been the mantis shrimp if you had one. I'm not sure.. mystery.. lol

 

[bigb]

Originally Posted by janis
Hi
Thanks for the reply. The tank is covered by glass and then by a wooden lid so there is no way he could have jumped out.
Janis
Look under wooden lid and on top of glass lid. He could've fit through any cut-outs for filtration/ skimmers etc.

 

[janis]

Thanks
I will check again. I think I will have to sit up for a while tonight the check out what is going on in the tank after dark.
I never realised I would get so attached to the little guys.
Janis

 

[dmitry]

I'm not sure about this, but read on this board once that mantis shrimp makes clicking/tapping sounds, especially at night. So...have you heard any clicking coming from the tank? (For a while I thought I had one because I heard clicking, but then realized it was a thermometer tapping against the glass due to water-flow... And oddly it wasn't tapping all the time...just sometimes. :notsure: )

 

[janis]

I think we are pretty sure that it is not a mantis. There is only one other explanation we can think of and that is that he has been eaten by our Atlantis Anemone.
That was in the corner of the tank where the clowns usually go at night, I think it was in a bad mood as it had just been fished out of the sump. After reading other threads about anemones eating fish maybe he caught our little clown.
I don't suppose we will ever know now.
Janis

 

[f1shman]

Yup I had that clicking noise too, but it was my picasso triggers teeth biting a rock lol or this crab i have banging against the glass as he walked along the glass