Not only does this sound crazy, but it is crazy.

[CoralBeauty13]

For the life of me I can not figure out what is going on in my tank. In the beginning I thought that a long piece of tonga branch was a broken femur bone, noob mistake for sure, but Thanks RC people for helping me nail that one. and now I need some more help. Weird stuff keeps happening in my tank.

For the last month, I have awaken to find frags/plugs dug up and moved clear across my 180gl tank. I have found a three different plugs of polys on top of scape that was always deep in the sand bed on the bottom. I have found a 6 head frogspawn setting on top of a large leather, three feet from where it sat. I found my 5 head Duncan in the middle of my Devils hand about two feet from it's resting place and about a foot up from the bottom. My Husband lost an acan head as it found it's way in the middle of some button polyps a foot up from where it was. He has suggested a camera to catch the action because at least twice a week something is outta place.

Yesterday I found my single small rock of mushroom behind the back of the rock scape...moved from the front garden. This morning my three head hammer upside down in the corner of the tank. Today I can not find the Duncan "AT ALL". I have taken a magnifying glass to search for it, but it is nowhere to be found. I don't have a lot of rock, and it's a five head Duncan on a one inch plug, so searching should be easy.

The only two fish that could possible move something that heavy would be the Hippo, and possibly the yellow wrasse. Even the wrasses mouth is not that big so I'm not even sure it's him. In the middle of the night I sometimes check the tank when I get water or for whatever reason and things are just fine.
Water flow doesn't really bounce off the bottom so it's not what's blowing frags around. Plus most are pretty snug into the sand and has to be pulled up if moved. I even turn the flow to it's lowest point at night as to let the fish be calm and sleep.

I know how weird it sounds but any ideas before I start to thinking I'm a sleepwalker :fun4: and doing weird things to the tank in the mid morning hours.

Has anyone else had this happen and did you find out what it was...It's only my Husband and I , so no one else to blame...Just so weird.

 

[AcroporAddict]

If it is not one of your fish, then you probably have a critter in there you don't know about that is doing it, maybe a crab.

 

[TigeBell]

Have you taken a red light to your tank when the lights are turned off?

 

[CoralBeauty13]

No, I haven't done any night searching..but I will. no crabs....I did find a take out a purple lobster that was hidden for several months once. It is gone now. Could be something new in there.

 

[disc1]

I used to have a big pistol shrimp that fancied himself an interior decorator. No frag was safe if it wasn't glued down to a rock that weighed at least 2 or 3 pounds.

 

[TigeBell]

No, I haven't done any night searching..but I will. no crabs....I did find a take out a purple lobster that was hidden for several months once. It is gone now. Could be something new in there.

probably the purple lobster died and came back as a ghost :hammer: LOL

 

[billdogg]

My urchin moves anything that gets in its way.

Taking a look about 2AM with a red light is a great idea. Cellophane over a flashlight works well. You might be surprised what s running around in there, especially if the tank has been around for awhile

 

[leveldrummer]

dont underestimate the raw power of a fish that wants to move something... they will surprise you.

Also, there are worms, crabs, mantis shrimp, urchins, etc etc. there could be any number of little monsters in there that want to redecorate.

 

[nogascans]

One of our local reef club (CGRC) members here in SE Georgia has a larger Hippo Tang that moves his frags, including SPS plugs, around tank at will.

Guess it has a better idea of tank feng shui than the tank owner??

Sincerely,

David

 

[AcroporAddict]

No, I haven't done any night searching..but I will. no crabs....I did find a take out a purple lobster that was hidden for several months once. It is gone now. Could be something new in there.

I'd have sworn I didn't have any crabs in my 100 gallon mixed tank, until I saw a 3" gorilla crab in there, and the reef had been set up for 3 years, so you can have a crab and not know it.

 

[Donkeykong]

Hippo tangs are known to redecorate for you, and they can be surprisingly strong. Since some of the frags are ending up on top of other ones I would be inclined to guess it is the fish. I have seen crabs and snails push, pull, and bulldoze frags around a tank, but I dont see a hermit crab crawling into the middle of a leather coral. Emerald crabs tend to just knock things over as they go, not carry things to a higher spot.

 

[Whisperer]

Gobies also pick up objects from the top and dump them down the bottom of the tank.

 

[CoralBeauty13]

These are all great suggestions. The hippo is my main suspect as he likes nothing around his sleeping area. He does move a frag or two, but I have never seen him pick and dig one out. I will check out the middle of the night scene could be interesting what I might find. For several months I never saw that purple lobster until one day two new fish went missing. I moved a large rock and I saw him eating the fish...scared me crazy so I got some credit at my local fish store . Thx everyone !