Clowns self-annihilation

[kurtg]

All of my clowns have disappeared. I'm thinking this maybe the classic newbie mistake of mixing 1 maroon clown with 2 mated perculas in a 110 gallon 48" tank. (If hindsight counts for anything, I was going to pull the maroon out and in a new tank before getting her a mate.)

I had the maroon and a percula in the tank for 6 months and they staked out territory on opposite ends of the tank. The maroon had a BTA and the Percula had a Ritteri. I added a Juvie percula a few weeks ago and after some initial grossing by the maroon, things settled down again.

I didn't notice any fighting accept that my 7" Yellow tang has a red marks consistent with fighting and he's usually the tank peace maker.

What may have upset the apple cart is that the Ritteri took to glass scaling which made the percula clowns homeless, but they stayed on their end of the tank.

Any other ideas? I saw the maroon after the percula had disappeared (I assumed they were just in the rocks), but a few days later, they are all gone. I haven't seen any of them for about 2-3 days.

--Kurt

 

[Anemone]

Hmmm, if it was fighting that caused the loss of the fish, you should have seen some major signs of trauma on the clowns (torn fins, chasing, etc), especially since two of the clowns had been with your for 8 months.

You might have to think that you have a fish predator in the tank that has reached a good enough size to finally take on the clowns (mantis maybe?), or that you may have introduced a disease with the new percula.

FWIW,
Kevin

 

[kurtg]

No, I didn't see any of that. The juvie Percula was in there for a few weeks. The tang is chasing a blue fin damsel which richly deserves it, but no torn anything. The maroon may nip, but then darts back to its anemone for cover.

I have a green brittle star, but it's been injured by a moving rock (by me) and is hiding under a rock.

I did have some recent water quality issues as my Phosphate reactor needed new material. That's been fixed. All water parameters appear good and I did a 20% water change last week as part of the monthly cleaning.

--Kurt

 

[Anemone]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9407768#post9407768 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kurtg
I have a green brittle star, but it's been injured by a moving rock (by me) and is hiding under a rock.

Did you know that green brittles are notorious fish-eaters? I'm not saying it got all three, but it could easily account for the juvie perc, and even the older one, depending upon size.

Kevin

 

[GSMguy]

i think the maroon is a really bad choice for a community tank they get mean

you have a ritteri in good condition in a 5 month old tank??
i bet the maroon is still in there hiding ?

 

[kurtg]

Yes to green brittle star. I think it took out 2 yellow fin damsels. I could use a thread on how to get rid of it. (It came with the tank about 6 months ago). I've been feeding it a good sized chunk of shrimp, silver side, or anchovy ever week.

As for the ritteri, the tank is a few years old and judging by the setup as old as ten. I think I nearly lost it due to poor lighting, but I upgraded to 2x 250 watt MH. It seems to be making a steady recovery. Not recommended for newbies, but then I was too noob to know better. (Nor did the LFS advise me against this).



--Kurt

 

[kurtg]

I found the maroon on the back-side of the tank sitting on his BTA. I can't figure out what the BTA is doing back there as it's fairly dark, but his previous spot was encroached on by a faster growing anemone.

I still can't find the 2 percula clowns, but I'm a little more hopefully.

--Kurt