[jamestank]

I woke up this morning to find that one of my clownfish is missing.

As of last night, the tank contained:

2 clownfish (small)
1 Yellow Tang (4 inches)
1 Flame Angel (2 inches)
1 Blue Damsel (1.5 inches)
1 Mandarin
2 Cleaner shrimp
1 Sea Urchin
1 Serpent Star (legs are about 3 inches long)

It is a 75 gallon aquarium with 80 lbs of live rock.

After noticing the clown was missing this morning, I looked all around the tank and could not find the body.

My questions are these:

1. Any thoughts on what took him down?
2. Do I have to remove all the live rock until I find him to remove the carcass to avoid poisoning the whole tank? Or can I assume that whatever killed him also ate him entirely and there is nothing to worry about?
3. I'm about to do some tests (nitrite, ammonia, nitrate, ph). Assuming those tests come back okay, does that affect the answer to 2. above (i.e., I don't have to conduct an all out search for the body? And how frequently should I continue to test the water to make sure all is safe?

As I always, really appreciate your thoughts and advice.

Thanks.

[Michelle]

We lost a basslett one time for like 3 months and then we found him in the overflow, we couldn't believe he was still alive, but he is now back in the tank and doing great Good Luck!!

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by jamestank

1. Any thoughts on what took him down?
2. Do I have to remove all the live rock until I find him to remove the carcass to avoid poisoning the whole tank? Or can I assume that whatever killed him also ate him entirely and there is nothing to worry about?
3. I'm about to do some tests (nitrite, ammonia, nitrate, ph). Assuming those tests come back okay, does that affect the answer to 2. above (i.e., I don't have to conduct an all out search for the body? And how frequently should I continue to test the water to make sure all is safe?

1. It is hard to say what happened to you fish without knowing your system entirely.
2.I would say that it all depends on how your tank is set up and what sort of clean up crew you have.If you have lots of worms and other critters that would feed on a dead carcass, I'd say that you should be OK. I had lost fish now and then but I never noticed anything in terms of water parameters becouse my clean up crew will take care of it almost instantly, however, I'd watch for ammonia spike for a few days/week and test for that just to be sure.

Sorry for your loss.