Where'd it go????

[GlassBlower]

Ok this is getting odd to me. I have had some disappearing fish. some small damsels disappeared first (not a big deal) thought it might be my sally lightfoot. Now a Yellow tang went missing with no trace at all. not in any filters or anything and didn't jump out. It was the largest fish in the tank and now gone!.. What can be doing this? Any ideas? what should i do. I don't want any more to go missing.

Lee

 

[Krish]

That's really odd Lee! What kinds of other fish do you have and how big is your tank?

 

[GlassBlower]

It's a 46 gal bowfront. I have 1 Manderin Gobie, 1 Maroon Clown, 3 engieneering gobies, and 1 Coral Beauty left. 3 damsels and the yellow tang now gone. I can't figure out what it could be at all. My sally lightfoot did eat my horseshoe crab and some snails as well as a hermit or 2.. could this be the culprit??? But there is NOTHING left of any of the missing fish.

Lee

 

[Krish]

That's totally odd, but not impossible as you are experiencing it. Ever thought about shinning a flashlight in your tank at night after the tanks lights have been off for a while? It's amazing what creatures only come out at night which you never knew you had. Maybe something is emerging at night and causing the problem. I've heard of things like that happening before and won't hurt to check it out...Just a though. HTH. Good luck

 

[spongebob lover]

ohh woouu dood that's really odd .
i agree with my dood krish, i think you should try checking your tank at night because this could be a mantis shrimp .. that's the only thing i can think of right now because i don't think a crab would eat such a big fish, but then you never know .

 

[Krish]

My friend said he found some worm like things come out of his substrate at night and implanted themselves in the fish and ate them inside out! Scarey huh?

 

[spongebob lover]

My friend said he found some worm like things come out of his substrate at night and implanted themselves in the fish and ate them inside out! Scarey huh?

what !! ?? that's really gross and creepy

 

[acemart]

How big are your engineer gobies? They mature into what is referred to as "convict blennies" and are known to eat anything that will fit in their mouths. Once their horizontal strips start to turn vertical you will notice a change of behaviour that could be detrimental to other tank inhabitants.

 

[tike2]

I once had a few fish come up missing with no trace at all!.........Until......I notice one great big FAT green yuma :lol: ......traded the sucker away and haven't had a prob since

 

[diablo]

I had a fish dissapear. It was a coral beauty checked my test and found a ammonia spike. The fish got stuck in a rock and died.
A couple other questions for you. do you have brittle stars?? The little red/black ones will eat dead fish and detritious. The large ones mainly yellow from what ive seen at lfs lately they are evil little punks. They will wave arms in the water waiting for a live fish to attack. They will leave no trace. I have sally lightfoots in my tank, and cant say that they are aggresive.
Also what is all the livestock (corals/ inverts/fish) of your tank could be alot of different things that could cause unexplained losses..

Do some water testing make sure there is no spike of ammonia That is the first thing that will show if you have a dead decaying fish.

 

[NaH2O]

How big is the Sally Lightfoot? I do know that these will sometimes go after fish, but for a bigger sized fish to be totally gone without any sign has me perplexed. A friend of mine had a decent sized sargassum trigger that was there one day and gone the next. We looked everywhere for it....couldn't even figure out if it jumped where it would have jumped out at. The fish was there the night before, so what the heck happened? Well, we moved her tank recently, and we found it....underneath a very small clearance of the calcium reactor. This fish had to jump out...work its way down 3 shelves of a side cabinet (which was fit snugly next to the tank), and under a calcium reactor. I still can't figure out how he did it.

Check for an ammonia spike, as diable suggested.

What corals do you have in the tank?