Silly clownfish
New member
I had my Randalls goby for just over 2 years. He was right there at feeding time on Sunday and acting normal, but missing Monday evening. I fed the tank a couple of times and he has not come out. I got out a flashlight and looked on the floor, in the overflow, etc. no goby. The most recent fish addition to my tank was the solar wrasse back in January of this year, and most recent anything addition was CUC (snails only) about 2 months ago so no recent changes.
In 18 years of reefkeeping I have only had 2 other sudden disappearances of healthy fish. With the first, a cherub angel, I soon found a mantis shrimp that had hitchhiked in on live rock. The second was a pearly jawfish and it appeared that the rockwork above his cave had shifted. I believe he undermined the rocks and crushed or at least trapped himself.
My only possible clue with this goby is a hard splash occured when I was putting in an algae clip Sunday afternoon. I thought this was my wrasse. It is possible that the goby jumped, hit the canopy and injured itself, the died or was disabled enough to be consumed by my serpent star, brittle star, or CBS. I have had all 3 of these critters for over a decade and they have never been a problem. I have even found at least one dead fish in the tank that none of them ate.
No one else is acting abnormal and tank parameters are stable, although I doubt a small goby would have a significant impact on this system (75g DT, 20g sump, running for 2.5 years, inhabitants listed in my signature). I am never able to measure ammonia, nitrate, or phosphorus. I might have slightly more skimmate than normal, but not sure.
Any thoughts?
Kim
In 18 years of reefkeeping I have only had 2 other sudden disappearances of healthy fish. With the first, a cherub angel, I soon found a mantis shrimp that had hitchhiked in on live rock. The second was a pearly jawfish and it appeared that the rockwork above his cave had shifted. I believe he undermined the rocks and crushed or at least trapped himself.
My only possible clue with this goby is a hard splash occured when I was putting in an algae clip Sunday afternoon. I thought this was my wrasse. It is possible that the goby jumped, hit the canopy and injured itself, the died or was disabled enough to be consumed by my serpent star, brittle star, or CBS. I have had all 3 of these critters for over a decade and they have never been a problem. I have even found at least one dead fish in the tank that none of them ate.
No one else is acting abnormal and tank parameters are stable, although I doubt a small goby would have a significant impact on this system (75g DT, 20g sump, running for 2.5 years, inhabitants listed in my signature). I am never able to measure ammonia, nitrate, or phosphorus. I might have slightly more skimmate than normal, but not sure.
Any thoughts?
Kim
