Purple Anthius mortality

[good_reefer]

last week i purchased 3 purple anthius ....
2 female
1 male

the male and one female roamed the tank while the other female hid in the rocks 100% of the time. 5 days later ... the hiding female was dead ... looked like the tail was nipped pretty good.....2 days later the other female was dead ... didnt see any external damage


other inhabitants in tank:

1 clown
1 coral beauty
1 neon cleaner wrasse (1" long)
1 fox face hawk fish

any help please!!
about 30 blue leg crabs

 

[ryguy886]

Seems like the blue leg crabs got a little frisky with your fish. I have the same problem with my purple spiny reef lobster. Even though they are "reef safe" they will nip at fish when given the chance. I lost my yellow tang to the lobster last week even though he is spot fed a half a raw shrimp every other day.

 

[ilikefish34]

What size aquarium and what kind of clown? Also, I'm unfamiliar with your fox face hawk... was that a typo? Anyways, several of the hawkfish species could be bullies as can the clowns, especially when dealing with a fish as delicate as Purple Queen Anthias.

 

[good_reefer]

What size aquarium and what kind of clown? Also, I'm unfamiliar with your fox face hawk... was that a typo? Anyways, several of the hawkfish species could be bullies as can the clowns, especially when dealing with a fish as delicate as Purple Queen Anthias.

sorry, long nose hawkfish .... clown 1/2-shy of 2"

hawk
anthius
and
wrasse

all entered at same time

 

[betamed]

blue leg hermit crabs can't harm a healthy fish. how were they eating?

 

[good_reefer]

blue leg hermit crabs can't harm a healthy fish. how were they eating?

they were eating great and healthy .... literally bought them last week ...
the first to go looked like the tail was beat up ... didnt see anything on the other (wife said she thought the eyes were gone)

 

[Monkeyfish]

Physical damage probably ocurred after their demise. These aren't the hardiest of fish.

 

[ilikefish34]

And the aquarium size and the kind of clown? Also, the Anthias do well with good flow. We may also be digging further into this than we need to for two simple reasons.
1. The difficulty of the species.
2. The fact that these were new acquisitions... which leads back to the hardiness, or lack thereof, of the species and how poorly they ship.

Good luck with everything.

 

[good_reefer]

ty for the replies ....