Trying to figure this out is making me nuts!

[MrHarvard]

So my tank has been up and running with livestock for almost 7 months. I originally had 2 Wyoming White clowns and after 2 months the smaller male just disappeared! The tank is a rimless open top 29g BC that I'm running BB. I checked everywhere for this fish. I check the rear 3 chambers, skimmer pump/body, power heads, reactor pump, the floor, everywhere in the tank with and without the lights on. Fast forward a few months, I decided to purchase another small clown to pair with my large female. I purchased a small Snow Flurry and for the past nearly 2 months they have both been happy and healthy. When I woke up this morning the large female was now missing!? I again searched EVERYWHERE and no sign of anything. This fish has been in the system for nearly 7 months then poof gone!!! I am at a loss and extremely frustrated. I have not seen any hidden predators (and I look at my tank ALOT!!) or anything else that would be a good culprit. The other crazy thing is if the fish were dead and still in the tank the hermits would be all over it and they are scattered about like always. Does anyone have any input that would be helpful? Thanks for reading.:headwally:

 

[tony727]

Are you sure you bought Clown fish? Perhaps they were actually Magician fish..I haven't had fish disappear on me like that, but they have to be around somewhere.

 

[snake1]

Do you have a cat?

 

[CrazyEyes]

I was actually going to blame the cats too.

 

[Bent]

Do you have a lot of rock and places to hide? Have you watched the tank at night?

Clowns aren't typically jumpers, but I'd put that on suspect 1. Either they've bugged out and you just haven't found the bodies, or as said above you have a cat or dog or mouse grabbing them off the floor. Before you buy anything else, I'd make a mesh top and see if it happens again.

There could be a predator in there that you just aren't seeing, the clowns are small enough that it could have drug them under something, and 2 months is a good amount of time for something small originally surviving on detritus to get big enough to start hunting. Plus, if it's a nocturnal ambush predator, it's sort of their job to not be seen, so finding them by just looking will be very difficult. If it were me and I had no other critters in the tank and nothing stopping me, I'd get some new salt water in a few big buckets or a plastic trash can and start pulling the rock out and inspect each rock Very closely. Even using a magnifying glass and a LED head flashlight. Inspect them coming out of the tank, and going back into the tank. I suspect you'll find a body this way. If you can't pull the rock, I might consider getting some mollies, acclimating them to saltwater and putting them in. Then watch the tank at night with a red flashlight for a few hours every day and see if you can catch something grabbing them. Also do a head count every morning and see if you are loosing any.

The fish could have died of stress and put themselves somewhere before they died that you can't see, doing the rock removal would likely find the bodies.

If you do find them amongst the rock work I would look closely at them with a magnifying glass and see if you can see any obvious sign of injury. If they look decently intact, then my bet is they were all stressed from aclimation issues then crawled under a rock and died.

Speaking of which, how are you acclimating the critters?

 

[ClownMan727]

I think my dog ate my lawnmower blenny. I did not see it for a couple of days and was not to worried because he blends in with the rocks so well. But last weekend I rearanged everything in my tank he was not in there. The dogs breath was smelling a little fishy lately.

 

[snake1]

I could totally see a dog or cat grabbing a treat that jumps out on the floor .....or a cat fishing one out of the bowl

 

[oblio]

I'm going with dog/cat treat also. The circle of life :spin1:

 

[Webmanny]

Do you have a cat?

I swear he beat me by one second. LOL

 

[MJNTWise]

Cat did it.

 

[MrHarvard]

Ok.....So let me provide some additional info to really make it baffling. Yes I have cats and after I lost the first small clown and searched I chalked it up to exactly that, jumped and cat ate it. Now with this second and larger clown however, I was out on my back patio last night looking at the moon (damned clouds!!!) I mistakenly locked the cats outside. When I came in I took a look at the tank with my flashlight (like I do every single night before bed) and both clowns were were they normally are "sleeping". When I woke up this morning I went straight to look at my tank (again, like I do every single day) and the clown was gone! While I was looking for the tank I heard my cats raising hell and that's when I discovered I had locked them outside last night so as u can see no way a cat got this one. In regards to some of the other comments, my tank is bare bottom with tons of flow so hardly any detritus on the bottom of the tank for anything to hide/grow in. I have slowly looked at every piece of rock that the fish could have hidden in which aren't many and no signs of anything. I also no from experience if there were a dead fish in the tank the CUC would be all over it and they were scattered about the tank as usual. Manually removing rock to search is out of the question as the tank is full of acros and not to mention rocks attached together. Acclimating is irrelevant as this fish had been in this tank for almost 7 months. I have been in this hobby for many years so I checked all common things before making this post. Honestly I wish the cats had been inside then it would have been easy to blame:worried2: it on them and quit pondering what happened! Lastly it was definitely a clown fish. Although it's at the top of my list the magician fish requires you feed it fairy dust and it's just to pricey currently. Maybe once Obama is out of office the price will come back down.

 

[MrHarvard]

So while doing a little more digging I found that some larger hairy mushrooms will eat fish. I have never seen my clowns go near mine and it's in a pretty high flow area but this is almost the only possible answer...may never know.

 

[TampaSnooker]

I think you just found your answer. Larger mushrooms will lull fish into a false sense of security and slowly cup up around them. Lights out, no evidence...

 

[CrazyEyes]

 

[Bent]

That meme gets me every time

 

[C4DC]

Do your rear chambers have a false floor? My 12g biocube does and the clown would jump into tha area.

 

[swhobbie1]

I would not under estimate a CUC. I have had many good size fish go missing never to be found. CUC can make a quick meal of fish.

 

[janes_mw]

Dog?

 

[snake1]

Some fish are hard to see when looking top down when the water is running in the back chamber I have over looked fish in the past with the lights on and water running it reflects back and can help hide the fish ...or it's the dog .

 

[MrHarvard]

Definitely not in the rear chambers, I turned return pump off and checked everywhere back there. At this point I'm guessing it was the mushroom that did it. The strangest thing is my cleaner shrimp walks all over that shroom with no issues.

James, no dog.

Mike, aliens were not in town last night.

Swhoobie1, I know what your saying but I don't think 4 Scarlett, 3 blues, and 5 turbos(all small) could do it in 5 hours without leaving a trace. Plus due to flow the hermits have a hard time getting around on the bottom without and sand.

C4DC; no false floor all rear chambers were modded.