Missing Fish, help!

[TrevorLittle]

Hey guys, so I have a 125 gallon reef tank and I've been having some fish go MIA and I am trying to find a culprit. I have lost both a yellow clown goby and a green Mandarin but found no carcasses or anything. I'm guessing my cleanup crew got it before i noticed. Water params all good, here is a list of things in my tank.

Yellow tang
purple firefish goby
2 ocellaris clowns
yellow watchman goby
tiger pistol shrimp
green bubble tip anemone
40+ hermit crabs
100+ snails
5 Peppermint Shrimp

for coral I have some
goniopora
pulsing xenia
random zoa colonies
wall hammer

I have a feeling it's the pistol shrimp or the anemone but it's hard to tell i haven't seen anything the fish are just gone. Before this, nothing had been aggressive towards either fish they were both favorites among the other fish they were all pretty social.
Thanks for reading

 

[Betta132]

I doubt it's the pistol shrimp. Pistol shrimp can't kill fish, they just shoot them and scare them. Not pleasant for the fish, but not lethal.

What do you mean by "all good"? What are the exact parameters?
How old is the tank?
What are you feeding?

 

[TrevorLittle]

0 across the board. Little baby ammonia spikes but never is higher than 5ppm and goes right back down. 1.025 salinity. The tank is 3 months old and I am feeding dry spirulina and brine shrimp and I also feed with frozen mysis and krill every couple days. The only reason I think it's the pistol is because the Mandarin likes to hang out where the shrimp lives so i imagine it might have stunned it defending it's home. The bubble tip could have eaten the clown goby as he liked to hang around near it but the mandarin is too big for it i feel like.

 

[edinphilly]

Did they starve? Three months is awful new for a mandarin and my experience with clown gobies has been they're easily out competed for food and wither away. Your hermits and shrimp would make quick work of the carcass.

 

[Betta132]

If the pistol shot the mandarin, it would just scare the mandarin.
I agree, 3 months is very young for a mandarin and you have things that very well could have outcompeted the clown.
Also, brine shrimp isn't nutritious at all. It's like cotton candy. Baby ones are crazy nutritious because of all the yolk sac still on them, but adults don't have much on 'em.

 

[TrevorLittle]

So my clown goby was one of the first fish in my tank and is usually the first one to eat. I have a stable and large copepod population in my tank and have since the beginning. I have even added additional varieties and allowed them to reproduce. I dont think underfeeding is the case at all

 

[Stevenliu9]

There may also be unwanted hitch hikers from rocks such as (true stories): octopus, mantis shrimp, lobster, brittle star, all of which are fish eaters.

 

[TrevorLittle]

I started with 100 lbs base rock and 10lbs live rock which i had in another tank for a month and everything was kosher with that rock so I think unwanted hitch hikers is not it either

 

[Fishmaster13]

Well I'm pretty new with reef tanks I've had one running for nine months but the first 5 were just cycling with damsels and slowly adding live rock. Now I've got a mixed reef with lots of basic, tough corals and a fairy Wrass, blue mandarin, lawnmower Blenny, and a mated pair of snowflake clowns. I also have many cleaner shrimp and lots of snails/hermit crabs, a conch, and an emerald crab and Sally Lightfoot crab. There's been absolutely zero problems in that tank (except for when a cycling damsel went a bid kill crazy.) in my other saltwater tank, however, I've had MANY problems over the years, to many to count. My guess is probably the anenomie, but what type is it? There could be many other problems such as water quality and under/over feeding to name a few

 

[TrevorLittle]

Idk I think it could be the bubble tip anemone since i've got it, it wont take the food i offer and I think it's been having it's fill of my fish! I just checked my water params, all are at 0. Like I said i don't think under or over feeding is the issue. I would say I probably feed my tank too much but I have such a big cuc i'm not super worried about over feeding. I wanna rearrange my tank and add more rock I think I will wait to add more fish til i figure this out and everything settles to the change

 

[Betta132]

Fishmaster13, I'd suggest you remove the sally lightfoot. Like all crabs other than porcelains, it's an opportunistic feeder, and a very fast mover. It'll kill stuff, especially that mandarin. Best get it out before it realizes it can do that.
TrevorLittle, overfeeding is still a problem with a large CUC. It's still nutrients added into the tank, it's just being eaten first.

 

[Fishmaster13]

Thanks betta 123 I did a little more research into them it was kind of an impulse buy now he lives in my sump. If anyone needs to catch on i reccomend putting a glass vase at a 45° angle and filling the bottem with food. You'll catch him in no time. It's especially helpful if you've got a tank like mine, it's a corner tank that's a foot higher than me and difficult to do anything in. I saw nothing other than bad reviews about them. I did have suspiciouns that he was nibbling at my brain coral and sure enough right after I removed him it stopped. Thanks!