My fish dissapeared!

jomo

jomo

New Member
So I bought a used, established 24g nano cube about 10 days ago.
The livestock consisted of:
1 Banggai Cardinalfish
1 Peppermint Shrimp
5 Hermit crabs (1 blue, rest red)
2 Nassarius snails
Various corals (frogspawn, galaxea, xenia, candy cane)
Three days ago I added an emerald crab. All my water parameters were fine. I fed the tank yesterday and the cardinalfish ate as normal, so did the crabs. He seemed to be just as lively as the day I went and picked him up.
Today I woke up and went to check on the tank and my cardinalfish was gone! It was somewhere around 8-12 hours from the last time I saw him and there was no trace of him. I started looking for a carcass and checked the whole tank and I found no sign of him! The hermits were all scattered out and none seemed to be around a carcass. I took the rocks out and found nothing.
I tested my water again, and my alkalinity was low, but everything else was good. I have two questions.
Is it possible he suddenly died with no predator in the tank? He was a little larger than the quarter, and the emerald crab is dime sized, I can't imagine he was big enough to kill him.
How fast could 5 hermits and 1 emerald devour a carcass that size? I couldn't find bones or anything in the tank. Would they have been able to get rid of all traces of him that quickly?
Thanks. I'm a bit of a noob so if I left out any pertinent information please let me know.
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
Fast enough. He most likely died and was consumed over night. Very few troubles with emerald crabs if any. Also probably bristle worms and your nassarius snails.
 
jomo

jomo

New Member
Yeah I took out a pretty large bristle worm last night. I thought he was the only one in there because he was always in the same place at night and I hadn't seen any others. Are there definitely others in there if there was 1?
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
Bristle worms are good, as long as you don't touch them. They are great at keeping the aquarium clean and they mostly only come out at night. I would leave them if you find any more.
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
There are probably bristle worms and there are probably some little baby bristle stars. It took my tank a VERY long time before I ever saw these little guys but now every time I feed my tank, their little 'arms' stick straight out like they're gonna catch food. It's kinda funny.
Also, you definitely don't want to remove all of your bristle worms. They clean up fish waste, detritus and extra food, plus dead fish... amongst other things. They are beneficial, you just have to be careful not to dig around in the rocks and sand too earnestly without gloves on.
Also, I don't believe that your emerald killed the fish. And emerald that size would have a hard time catching and pining down a fish that size.... He probably munched on him after he was dead though.
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
lol sure... You know... I am not ever sure that is what they are?? They kinda look like they have a camo pattern on them?? And they are TIIINNNNNYYYY...
 
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