[NoSump]

After months of patient cycling and tank "maturing", I finally added fish/shrimp to my tank this weekend. Two Ocelaris Clowns, one Yellow Watchman Goby, and a skunk shrimp. After less than 36 hours in the tank, we noticed last night that the goby had disappeared, nowhere to be found. I remembered that gobies, burrow in the sand, and was not too worried. This morning, sure enough the goby came out of hiding as soon as food was added to the tank.

Unfortunaly, however; one of the clowns was "missing". At feeding, the clown did not appear, I have looked throughout the tank, on all filter, skimmers, and powerhead intakes, on the floor around the tank, and there is no sign of him.

I had the exact same thing happen to a Chromis about one month ago. The other fish are fine, and showing no signs of distress. Is it possible that there is some sort of predator within my live rock structure? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Chuck

[NoSump]

NEVER MIND.


I took a second closer look at my skimmer intake, the poor little guy was sucked deep into the intake. Leason learned, cover intakes. Sorry.

Chuck

[zhenya]

Sorry to hear this,Chuck.

I suppose the little fella was weak and got sucked in. Healthy fish should be able to easily avoid this. Glad you found him/her.

[Poseidon]

To answer the other part of your question though... YES you can get predators in your rock! I have a Mantis in mine some where!, he goes through any shrimp I had tried to keep, like peppermint and cleaner, also goes through some snails, and I am convinced he got my Pseudochromis Doiti too! Do a search, you will find lots of info on the nasty buggers!

[NoSump]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

To answer the other part of your question though... YES you can get predators in your rock! I have a Mantis in mine some where!, he goes through any shrimp I had tried to keep, like peppermint and cleaner, also goes through some snails, and I am convinced he got my Pseudochromis Doiti too! Do a search, you will find lots of info on the nasty buggers!

Thanks, will do. The added insult to injury is that the first two clowns, got along very well. They were constantly joined at the hip. Since the first clown was only in the tank for a day or two, I didn't think that there would be problems adding a replacement (I got the replacement from the same store, and presumably they are from the same brood). They are fighting with each other, virtually non stop. Will this pass with time, and in the words of Rodney King "just learn to get along", or am I stuck with two fighter. It's really unpleasant to watch the two of them go at it.

Chuck

[Poseidon]

Mine fought for about a week whenI tried to introduce husband number 2. The first male took a leap of faith, out of a rubbermaid when I was moving... She was alone about a week and I guess she liked to be alone for a while.

[NoSump]

Posiedon:

What did you do about your mantis shrimp? Are there are their any mantis predators that can be added to the tank?

As an aside, I have eaten mantis shrimp in restaurants in Indonesia (not the tiny little guys in our tanks, but monster shrimp, that look very similiar to slipper lobster). They are a very popular item on the menu in Jakarta,

[cofstl411]

I lost a blue tang and never did find him. I had three chromis at $4.99 each but my $40 tang comes up missing after a week. I never found a carcass and I moved 100 lbs of live rock in my 125 gallon tank just looking. I moved all the furniture in my living room to just in case. I have added other fish and it has been at least a month and nothing else has come up missing. I did lose a chromis in my sump for three days though. I can't believe that he lived that long in there considering that I top off my tank via my sump. He practically jumped in my net to get back in the show tank.

[Poseidon]

I went looking for him a couple times, I even made a spear out of a coat hanger and jammed it in all the holes in my live rock. I tried a seek and destroy mission, but I heard the tapping only an hour or so after putting all the rock back in. As far as a Mantis Predator, I have witnessed Clown Triggers and Picaso triggers eating them, but they are way to risky for a reef tank. I was hoping my O. Niger would find and eat him, but that hasn't worked out either... So as far as I know he is still in there!

[Marine1]

We lost a clown and tried to get a replacement too. They were too close to the same size and they fought non-stop. We thought for sure one would jump out or die of stress so we took her back to the LFS and traded her in for a tiny small clown. It was love at first sight!

[NoSump]

The good news is that my clowns are getting along well - I guess they decided which one would be the "wife" (sounds like somthing the Massachusetts supreme court would come up with).

I've continued to lose a few more fish though. My watchman goby, skunk shrimp, and pistol shrimp - all disapeared without a trace within 36 hours of introduction to the tank.

Are the goby and shrimp more likely to succumb to unfavaorable tank conditions than the clowns and the royal gamma? The clowns and the royal gamma are doing fine. Both my tests and my LFS water tests have shown my water to be ideal (although we did not test for copper). If I do have a predator, are the shrimp and goby more likely targets than the clown and royal gamma?

Thanks.

Chuck

[Poseidon]

YUP! Sounds like a crab or mantis to me.... ARGH Good luck with that.

Yup shrimp are more likely to succumb to poor water quality as well!

[NoSump]

[quote=Poseidon]YUP! Sounds like a crab or mantis to me.... ARGH Good luck with that.

Poseidon: You mentioned a crab. Could a hermit crab take down a shrimp?
Also, I thought the pistol could "take care of itself" with it's snaping claw?
All I have are red leg and scarlet leg crabs (one scarlet crab is very large).

Thanks,
Chuck

[Poseidon]

Crabs are very opprotunistic feeders. I think a "very large" hermit crab COULD make a meal out of a cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp? MAYBE. A MANTIS SHRIMP on the other hand... NO DOUBT, it could take pretty much whatever it wants. You also may have a simple hitchhiker crab, that came in on your rock... I pulled out 2 brown RED EYED crabs from my tank.... ANYTHING with POINTY claws gets pulled out at first sight!

[NoSump]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

Crabs are very opprotunistic feeders. I think a "very large" hermit crab COULD make a meal out of a cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp? MAYBE. A MANTIS SHRIMP on the other hand... NO DOUBT, it could take pretty much whatever it wants. You also may have a simple hitchhiker crab, that came in on your rock... I pulled out 2 brown RED EYED crabs from my tank.... ANYTHING with POINTY claws gets pulled out at first sight!

Thanks,

Mike:

Good news on the disapearing fish front - the Pistol Shrimp made an appearance late last night (after lights out). I guess the Pistol Shrimp has found a very effective hiding place within my rocks. Based on the fact that it has been nearly a week since I have seen the Watchman Goby or the Skunk Shrimp, I am not holding out much hope for them (short of putting their pictures on milk cartons).

I understand that if the skunk shrimp molted it would "hide" for some time until a new shell was formed - but I have to believe that I would notice his antanae sticking out of a rock (and that it would'nt hide for a week).

I'm beginning to come to the conclussion that I may have had weakened fish that simply did not survive the transition from LFS to tank (although my tank had been running for several months - it still isn't a "mature" tank yet).
At least that's what I'm hoping based on the fact that before the fish were introduced I was not losing any snails or crabs (both of which I understand to be targets of mantis shrimp; nor have I heard any clicking sounds).

All other fish are doing great, eating and swimming well (those Royal Gamma's are really beautiful fish). In terms of copper in my water, I have never dosed my tank, so I am presuming that should not be an issue? I did use a scapper a few weeks ago that had a little bit rust on it (I tried to wipe away as much of the rust as possible) but I don't believe that any small traces of rust that may have entered the water would have much impact when diluted with 72 gallons of water.

Thanks,
Chuck