what is eating my fish
- Thread starter bward9876
- Start date
amcarrig
Allons-y!
Contrary to popular belief, only a spearing type mantis would be able to take down fish. Smashers are not capable of killing and eating fish unless they are extremely lucky or extremely starving. It's also not likely that a smashing mantis would go after fish in a reef tank full of snails, hermits and shrimp.killerwhale0217 said:
allstar.h2o
Premium Member
Set a Mantis trap
lovethereefer
New member
i second the spearer theory....could be a teddy bear crab....have seen the large ones snag fish
jakano
New member
I have the exact same problem. fish that seem perfectly healthy suddenly dissapear.ive lost a powder blue tang,a lyretail anthias that was attacked by something for sure cause he survived a day or two before dissapearing, and now my yellow tang who was my favorite fish. my tank is a 110 high with about 100lbs of live rock.thing is i had all this same live rock in a smaller tank before. and i didnt lose stuff like this. well maybe i did lose stuff, i had green chromis that one by one vanished.maybe i have a mantis or just a mean fish that kills the others while they sleep. today i found the yellow tang stuck on the intake to my closed loop pump and it was almost shredded.of course alot of the damage was probably the suction power of the dart but it also looked eaten to me. it had no eyes and the guts were gone but most of the body was intact but cut up. this would make a good slasher movie wouldnt it?
I was losing fish also. I would put them in and they seemed healty but the next day they were missing. I spoke to a firned of miine that has been in this hobby for 15 years and he stated when you lose a fish in a big aquarium is is a long shot to ever find the,. He said the crabs and shrimp will get rid of the remains before you even notice they are gone alot of times. After he stated this we checked and my alk level is what killed them and then the inverts just disposed of the remains.
I had a similar problem awhile back in a FOWLR tank and after alot of hunting found I had a little crab that came as a hitchhiker. Not sure what kind he was exactly but he was small and mean as he@#. I ended up finally catching him and put him in his own tank because he was so cool. I would regularly feed him live fish, he was amazing he'd be just sitting around chillin until I dropped a guppy in the water and then he would instantly go into hunting mode until he caught and killed it, he perfered live food btw. I was always told small crabs are OK / good for eating alge etc etc but after him the only crabs I'll ever put in my tank are hermits... Look around and see if you don't have a couple crabs because they will do things like that. I lost several hundred dollars worth of fish before I finally figured it out, don't make the same mistake.
i had a problem with fish disapearing to. hasnt happend in a long time now but i was losing anything new i put in. lost a bi-color angel a rust angel in the same night. no signs of them anywhere. my tank isnt that big and you can kinda see in the rockwork. didnt find any trace of them. i havent added any new fish since. all i have is a clown. flame angel. and a fiji coral beauty. anything else dissapears during the night when i put them in after quarantine
coreygoforth
New member
my 2 clowns jumped out of the tank
Chaotic Reefer4u
♥Acropora Aficionado♥
wow i have the same problem.
killerwhale0217
In Memoriam
Sorry havent been resonding in a while
killerwhale0217
In Memoriam
I just lost some fish but they were still in my tank. Woke up yesterday morning and my rock beauty angel and my spanish hogfish were both dead. My hippo was on its last leg but she came back..... I dont know what happened.
killerwhale0217
In Memoriam
ediaz, what do you got going on up there in GR? Anything to get rid of? Let me know in PM
crazzyreefer
New member
I took a friends LR and diped in a heavy salt solution, placed it on a steel plate and next took my welder and put it on high, stuck an eltrode in it and watched the crab fry! he had attacted many fish,,no longer, no pardon from arnold!.. and the live rock wasnt damaged in the slightest!
killerwhale0217
In Memoriam
Sounds like a good way to rid 'em
I used to get a lot of popping. One day I caught the sucker. It was just a pistol shrimp, with one large claw for popping. I don't think those are fish eaters, since the live side by side with little gobies. I gave it to someone with a bigger tank. So its fate is unknown.
Recently, I've been hearing a new popping. Odd, since I haven't bought anything new. It only pops just after the lights go out.
But as to the fish disappearing in earlier posts, I once had a sally lightfoot that I SAW catch and eat a damsel fish. The damsel must have disagreed with the crab, because it died a few weeks later, much to my relief.
Recently, I've been hearing a new popping. Odd, since I haven't bought anything new. It only pops just after the lights go out.
But as to the fish disappearing in earlier posts, I once had a sally lightfoot that I SAW catch and eat a damsel fish. The damsel must have disagreed with the crab, because it died a few weeks later, much to my relief.
killerwhale0217
In Memoriam
thats weird that a sally light foot would eat a dmasel... I used to hear some poping in my tank but havent heard it for quite a while and nothing comes up missing and I never see anything. I once did see a mantis in there but all I seen of him was his head.... But crashed the tank and since havent heard him...Thats been several months ago.
