Mystery ! Disappearing Fish ? ??help??

[phishman1]

55 gallon. LR, LS
2 Penguin 330 bio wheels, 1 Sea Clone 100 Skimmer
Lights work out to 4 watts per gallon.
Problem:
In the past 5 months I have had 3 fish "disappear", never to be seen or heard from again ! Maybe they have seen Finding Nemo and decided to try it for themselves? lol
Seriously, my Coral Beauty got a little "fat" about 2 months ago, then disappeared. (also stopped eating)
- 3 days ago my Sepae Clown turned up missing (eating fine, nothing wrong)
- today, I turn on my lights and my Yellow Tang and Bi Color Blenny said "mornin" but my 6 line Wrasse now no where to be found, he was fine yesterday and last night.
In the tank I have.....
1 Yellow Tang, 1 Bi Color Blenny (used to have 1 Coral Beauty, 1 Clown and 1 Wrasse, these are now "gone")
The usual cast of cleanups, snails, red and blue Hermits along with a few Zebra hermits.
About 6 Brittle Stars, one pretty large, rest average size.
- Mushrooms, polyps, gorgonians, bubble, Xenia, flowerpot..
Water parameters test out fine:
nothing spiking.......ammonia, nitrate, hardness, ph......everything normal..
What is happening????
Jim

 

[the claw]

Have you done a complete search behind the tank for any crispy's?

 

[phishman1]

You got me on the crispy thing??/ I assume you mean something that jumped out....??
Couldn't be that, canopy top doesn't allow much space for "jumpers"..but I will double check....
This really sucks........I have a Royal Gramma almost ready in my hospital tank, but am now afraid to introduce into main tank.....what is happening??

 

[the claw]

I opened up my canopy the other day to find my Scott's Fairy Wrasse nicely dried out by the lights. It was within 48 hours after I watched Nemo. What are the odds? He must have swam up a return or something. My tank is like Fort Knox, or so I thought. He has been in the tank for over a year. I've never been much on the theory about green brittle stars, but lots of people swear they eat their fish. I just posted on another thread that I think alot of that is myth. I think people's fish die, and the star is just doing their job. Lots of people believe otherwise. I have one that is absolutely a sea monster ( call quiness it's so big), and I haven't suffered one loss from it.

 

[phishman1]

I guess I'm still confused. Are the brittle stars doing this? Does anyone have any experience losing fish this way?
I have a rather large Yellow brittle star and several black ones.
If my water is fine the only other thing I can think of is a predator of some kind?
Maybe I should leave one of the lights on during the night, or maybe the living room light so darkness doesn't get on the tank and the fish get eaten??
Jim

 

[ryebread]

Have you heard any clicking noises in the tank?
Do you spot feed your brittlestars? I would say that 1 brittlestar is plenty for a 55g tank........6 is pushing it quite a bit. Brittlestars will hunt and kill if they are not being spot fed. They are fast growers and need to eat meaty foods.....not just algae.

 

[phishman1]

I don't hear any clicking sounds.
I don't spot feed the brittles, I assumed that they would be just scavengers eating anything left over on the bottom etc.
I feed the fish brine shrimp thawed out, and sprinkled with garlic extract. They alternate the next day with algae based flake foods and maybe zooplankton mixed.
I assumed that the scavengers were getting enough? I would hate to think I would have to take the tank apart and try to get them out.......what a project that would be.

 

[newfishliny]

Thank god somebody else has this problem !
Missing - three shrimp where are they and also my powder plue tang is gone now for weeks . Not in my filter , lights , cant find it on the floor , not in sump . It couldnt decompose without me noticeing it. And then this week no shrimp and they are aleast 6 months old all are gone really !!!!!!!!
whats up also
new fish
Don

 

[aileena]

Funny because when I had my 29g I always had green chromis disappearing...I had like 2 or 3 disappear over a 2 year period...I think that I had a massive bristle worm...

 

[newfishliny]

Originally posted by RyeBread
Have you heard any clicking noises in the tank?
Do you spot feed your brittlestars? I would say that 1 brittlestar is plenty for a 55g tank........6 is pushing it quite a bit. Brittlestars will hunt and kill if they are not being spot fed. They are fast growers and need to eat meaty foods.....not just algae.
what are brittle stars and what do they look like and whats the noise , where do they come from ?
new fish

 

[phishman1]

I guess I'm still unclear on if its the brittle stars or not. I left a light on in the room with the tank last night to protect the yellow tang and the bi color, which now are my only two fish left.
Will leaving this room light on harm the fish, or do they need total darkness sometime.

 

[the claw]

The clicking noise is from a mantis shrimp which loves to dine on your lovely tankmates. The brittle stars aren't making the noise. Green Brittle stars have a reputation, but I am not aware of the rest of them. I suppose anything is possible. It is possible for something to die and be consumed rather quickly, so unless you watch your tank very closely, its possible to"lose your fish". Watch for open windows, and pelicans too .
Hope that clears some confusion, but still won't answer your questions.

 

[dive1]

I had a blue hippo tang do that last wk. When they get sick before they die they hide. If you have any rock at all it is very possible you would not find him unless you empty the tank. A fish can get into places you will never see. I placed a angle in at the same time and did not see him for 2 days. He finally showed up and doing great. I had looked for both fish with a flashlight and no where to be seen. My tank is a see thru so the can't hide behind. They can go under a rock and then in a hole. If he does not show up then consider him dead. Sorry.

 

[ags]

phishman....where did you buy your LR and from what region does it come. You are from FLA which means you might have purchased gulf rock as many FLA LFS stock this type of rock. It is aqua-cultured in the gulf of mexico and aside from being beautiful rock unfortunately comes with a ridiculously high number of mantis shrimp and gorilla crabs. The "popping" sound would indicate you have either a mantis or pistol shrimp. Both of which could be the culprit of your "disappearing fish." If by chance you have Fla LR another highly likely culprit is a gorilla crab. Identical body type as an emerald crab but with brown, tan, white and pinkish color scheme. Also distinguishing are the hairy spikes covering its body. If by chance you have any of these then you probably have found your source. I bought a lot of this Fla LR and only just recently pulled, what I hope to be my last, gorilla crab out. I had cleaner shrimp getting picked off left and right because of these guys. They are extremely camoflaged so good luck finding them. They typically do their damage at night when they can sneak up on their prey and attack while they are asleep.

 

[ophiura]

Brittlestars should not be left to scavenge as we tend not to feed our tanks nearly enough considering the size of the clean up crew in place in most tanks (especially for quite a few brittlestars).
Nearly every species commonly available in the trade can and will catch small fish, snails, etc if they are hungry. From the sound of it, you do not feed the tank very heavily. While I doubt they got your angel, the smaller fish are quite possibly victims of a brittlestar. Again, these animals will not allow themselves to starve when a meal is close by.
However, never rule out other options. People definitely do have instances where the brittlestar did it, however, they also will clean up weak, dead or dying fish too.

 

[phishman1]

The culprit was a very large Yellow brittle star. I got it out and took it to my local fish store. I'll get some sort of credit I'm sure. So it looks like mystery solved.
Still have 2 55 gallon tanks for sale or trade

 

[spider crab]

I can back Ags up on the Florida live rock. I got two Mantis shrimp in mine. Fortunately I spotted them and was able to get them out by pulling the the rock they were hiding in a dousing it with Soda Water. They dont like it at all and shoot right out of the rock when you pour the soda water on them.
I had never heard of the gorilla crab but I think I had one now that Ag has described it. I attempted to take photo but couldnt get a good enough picture to post.
I love that FLA live rock and intend to buy more, but in the future I'll douse it in soda water before putting it into the tank.
As far as I know the Sodawater is not harmful to the rock, but I'd like to know if anyone thinks otherwise.