Where did the fish go?

[seschaefer]

Well this is a little odd, but i hope you all can help me figure out what is going on!
I brought two clown fish home to my 20g tank and put them in there. They were doing great and then all of a sudden one of the fish disappeared. Then about a day later the second one disappeared. I have no idea where they have gone to and i can't find them anywhere in the tank. I have looked under the rocks, in the sand bed, it is just a gian mystery
all water levels were good!
Am - 0
Ph 8.4 a little higher than i like it, but it is liveable
Ites- about 0
trates- 10-20ppm
In the tank I have:
Six Line Wrasse
Yellow Tail Damsel
RBTA
Frogspawn
probably about 10 tuxedo hermit crabs
2 mexican turbo snails
1 teddy bear crab (hitchiker on addition of new rock)
sand sifting sea star
any speculations as to what happened to my two babies would be great. They were small clowns maybe an inch long if that makes any difference!
My guess is that they got eaten by the anemone, but i am not sure if that happens!
please respond with any ideas
thanks
sean

 

[jimmy g]

They jumped out

 

[jimmy g]

Do you have a hood? Look around the ground for them,
I lost a couple fish this way so I took chickeen wire and put it all around the back of my canopy.

 

[dedwards]

Sounds like a possible mantis shrimp. Do you hear clicking at night?

 

[blemmy_guy]

if you have shrimp or crabs, and a fish dies they can eat it up in a hurry!!!! :scared:

 

[blackhaze2]

They jumped!!!!!!!!
sorry :nope:

 

[seschaefer]

I have searched the floors all around the tank and can't find them. so i don't think that they jumped out. If they did they are good at playing hide and seek!
It is possible that they died and got eaten by the clean up crew, but there were no remains what so ever in the tank. They wouldn't have eaten the bones too would they have?
I am pretty sure i don't have a mantis shrimp, it may have snuck in on me, but this is the first problem like this i have had. The tank has been set up for well over a year now
I have a make shift hood over it until i can get the time to make a good one. I will look around again, maybe they did jump out, i think that is the most probable answer.
This sucks, i have lost three clowns in this tank!

Maybe it was just meant to hold other fish
thanks for all the input folks.
sean

 

[steveoutla]

My guess would be the damsel. When I had damsels in my tank I went through 6 clowns and a few starfish before I figured it out. I had a yellow tail and a 3 stripe. Damsels are just mean little buggers. The reason you couldn't find them is because your cleanup crew is very efficient (they didn't get the name clean up crew for nothin!). I'd get rid of the damsel and I bet your troubles will disappear.

 

[delta lady]

The same thing happened to me. At first I kept finding them (clowns) in my overflow area on the back of my tank (I have a wet/dry filtration system). Once I even found them in the bottom part of the wet/dry after they had been sucked into the overflow and sucked on down into the area where the water flows before it enters into the area where the bio-balls are (on top of the filter). Then one day one just disappeared and I have yet to find him. So your guess is as good as mine.

 

[kpatrick]

I would guess that the damsel probably stressed them out and killed them and then your cleanup crew did their job and disposed of the fish for you. You most likely wouldnt find any remains. Unless your really love your damsel I would get rid of it before adding more fish and then you should be okay next time.