My Clown Disappeared!

[burnthalo]

OK, i've been to the clown fish forum, and they directed me here. they said that it sounds like i have a mantis.

I had 4 fish for a while all damsels. Then one day, one disappeared. Vanished without a trace. At this time, this is what we had in the tank:
chocolate chip starfish
1 hairy brittle starfish
1 non-hairy brittle starfish
1 ginormous red hermit crab
the 4 damsels
and too much live rock. (according to me)

My tank is a 29 gallon, and i have a protein skimmer, filter, coralife lights (x2), and my water quality is always excellent (checked about every 3 days)

SO.... when this fish disappeared, i had no idea where it went. THEN we found another damsel cut in HALF floating at the top of the tank, at this point we were hearing clicking noises coming from the tank at night ( i thought it was the hermit crab). We figured that the hermit crab chopped the fish in half, as he was ALMOST as big as a tennis ball.

We traded the red hermit crab for a blue legged hermit crab (it's MUCH smaller). And we purchased a clownfish with a cleaner shrimp & 2 turbo snails.

So now the tank has:
1 chocolate chip starfish
2 brittle starfish
1 blue legged hermit crab
1 or 2 turbo snails (one might have been eated by the chocolate chip starfish)
2 damsels
1 clownfish
1 cleaner shrimp

Now to my story, my clown is missing. Vanished without a trace. He's not beside my tank anywhere, not in the skimmer/filter/overflow. He wasn't sick, no internal/external parasites, and he wasn't acting any different than usual. My tank water is excellent and the live rock was gotten from my brother who had it in his tank for 1 year or more, and it's been in my tank now for over 9 months. Now i'm not sure if there is clicking noises coming from the tank at night anymore, (because there's too much noise.... traffic, fans, stampede showband members etc.)

But i've been told it sounds like i have a mantis.... and i would like to know how to capture them, before i get anymore fish killed.

Please help!

 

[Deity]

I was kinda hoping someone else would chime in on this but I guess not.

I don't believe you have a mantis. There has to be another reason. Like I mentioned in the other thread a basher would've come in with the live rock and would've killed what you have for clean up crew. A spearer eats fish and isn't known to be a hitchhiker. They burrow in the substrate. I'm sure there might have been a case of this but not that often.

If you truly believe you have a mantis do a search on setting up a trap.

Your clean up crew would've devoured those fish in no time. You don't always find the remains of your fish. I had a sick fish one day and the next it was gone. My clean up crew took care of it. That sounds bad but stuff like this happens all the time.

Again I'm not an expert just did a lot of research on them because I think they're cool and wanted to get one.

Sorry about your fish and good luck

Stacie

 

[T-T-Trigger]

I agree with the above comments, the cut in half thing is odd though. But keep in mind that mantis' kill for food, notice that if you had a 'spearer' large enough to cut a fish like that, it would have eaten the whole thing, not just killed it for sport, also you would have more fish missing than just one.

Also, like was said above the cleanup crew would probably have devoured the remains of your sick/dying/dead clownfish. I even had a cleaner shrimp eat an 'almost' dead baby clownfish once. So they don't even have to be dead, just struggling enough to be noticed by hungry scavengers and too weak to escape.

You still MAY have a mantis, if you really heard noises that are otherwise unaccounted for, but I highly doubt that is what took out your fish.

good luck

 

[Shinobi9P]

If you hear clicking noises, you may have a pistol shrimp, or a mantis shrimp. But if its a mantis shrimp, its a basher/clubber not a spearer, its the sound of its clubs on rocks, substrate, etc. The spearers do not make the clicking sound , and a basher would most likely not even go after your fish, much less be able to cut it half.

 

[vapester]

yeah, like they said it would have destroyed any crustaceans...but FWIW, I keep a clownfish and 2 damsels in my mantis tank. And they've been living together like a year now.