Mantis Shrimp ate my Cowfish

[deftone]

Hey folks,

Had an interesting occurrence today with my fowlr tank. I have had a mantis shrimp in there for several years. It hitched a ride in on my live rock. He is pretty tame, I keep him fed and he leaves my clean up crew alone (usually). He is around 4" long. I tried many times to catch him but he is way to smart for me!

We picked up a juvenile yellow cowfish a few months ago and kept him in a quarantine tank to let him get a little bigger. Today I put him in the fowlr tank and within about 30seconds the mantis was darted out of his hole and snagged up the cowfish, dragging him back. Poor guy didn't stand a chance. I grew quite attached to that little cowfish and his antics at feeding time.

My question is, should I expect this to have shocked the tank? It's been about 20 mins and nothing looks unusual with the rest of the fish. I have a QT tank set up already but would be pretty tight to get all the fish in if I need to pull them from this tank. I did move around the rocks looking for the cowfish corpse but nowhere to be seen.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[homer1475]

A properly cycled tank should have no issue with 1 small fish death. Your CUC would have made quick work of a dead corpse.

 

[deftone]

A properly cycled tank should have no issue with 1 small fish death. Your CUC would have made quick work of a dead corpse.

I was worried that the attack would have caused him to release his toxin, but its been a few hours now so it looks like Im in the clear!

Guess its time to tear apart my tank and catch that darn Mantis if he is going to start eating my fish! My trigger used to keep him from getting too bold, but since he died last year the Mantis doesnt seem to fear anyone else.