What is killing my sleeping fish?

ishmael

ishmael

Premium Member
I have had a 185 mixed reef tank up for 8 years. I had an issue that killed a number of fish about a year ago. Not sure what it was. My tank babysitter screwed something up while I was on vacation.
At that point in time I had numerous crevice seeking fish that were vibrant and healthy. Wrasses, blennies, pygmy angels, etc. Every once in a great while something would disappear but only infrequently.
But in trying to restock my tank over the past few months, all of the fish that sleep in the rocks at night are VANISHING....
The ones that I see hanging outside the rocks or constantly moving throughout the night such as a tangs, green chromis, clownfish, and assorted anthias are still alive and well.
All of my corals are thriving, including many acros. So I am confident the water quality is good.
I am led to believe that something is attacking at night. I have seen worms from time to time.
Brittle stars? Pistol shrimp? I never hear anything.
Whatever it is, it came in on a very recently added piece of coral.
So I am seeking solutions as to how to find out what it is and more importantly eradicate it.
My tank is WAY to established for me to start ripping it apart.
I do have large shrooms, but fish are dissapearing throughout the night. I have no anenomes that I am aware of.
So far I have lost:
Midas Blenny, Flame angel, firefish, tiny hippo tang, assorted anthias....Like I said, all fish that seek crevices at nite.
How do I eliminate the problem?
See Pic:
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0204.jpg
    IMG_0204.jpg
    94.4 KB · Views: 3
BTW, this is happening at a frequency of ---I add a fish, it thrives, eats and is a happy camper for a week, then.....GONE!
 
I had a red eye crab grab ahold of a hippo tang one time. This was when I first set my tank up so I was still able to turn some rocks over. When I did find the crab, it still had the tang in it's claws, only the latter part of the fish had been eaten. This crab wasn't all that big, so something like this could have possibly hitchiked in on a piece of coral. Setting up some sort of a crab trap wouldn't be such a bad idea. Good luck.
 
I suppose it could be a bobbit worm, Eunice sp. They get huge, (5'+) and supposedly will eat fish (although I've only had them go after soft corals). A public aquarium in England had a problem with them eating fish (Blue Quay Aquarium?)

I've never had any luck catching them, they have good eyesight for a worm.

Jay
 
There is a small crab on one of my acros...Hairy back, about just under one inch. I can't believe he is big enough to go after these fish. But tonite he goes....
I have already seen bobbitt worms before. But this was long before I began to lose fish at such a frequency. I doubt I could catch them is they are the culprit.
 
Could be a gorilla crab, or any predatory crab that has finally gotten big enough to eat your fish. You could try the drinking glass trick. Put a tall smooth wall drinking glass in your tank with a piece of shrimp or something enticing rubber banded to a rock in the bottom. Place the glass such that a crab could climb on the rocks to the rim of the glass. The idea is he will jump in to get the shrimp, but can't climb the smooth wall out. If you are losing fish, it is worth trying for a few nights to see if you get anything.
 
Cloak, thanks for the links.
scubasteve06, no, I haven't heard anything nor have I seen it.

Floowid....
I did purchase an acro that had what I thought was just an acro crab. But now that you mention it it does look like a Gorilla crab. My problem though, is believing that a crab less than an inch in size could reek such havoc.

I once witnessing a peanut type worm trying to engulf a five inch sea hare in my tank....He escaped, but it lead me to believe that the worm was capable of preying on much larger fish. That was about two years ago and I pretty much wrote it off as a one time event. This has been like a fish a week.:fun5:
 
This...

xanthid.jpg


Killed and ate two of my fish. Try setting up a trap baited with a piece of raw seafood and prop it up against the rockwork before lights out. A tall, smooth sided glass works well, a wine decanter, or a a soda bottle with the top cut off and inverted. Crab climbs in and can't get out.
 
Last edited:
A yasha haze goby and a fairly good size yellow watchman goby. Not in the same week, about a month apart. I added the watchman and it went missing within two days. :mad:
 
ishmael said:
I once witnessing a peanut type worm trying to engulf a five inch sea hare in my tank....He escaped, but it lead me to believe that the worm was capable of preying on much larger fish. That was about two years ago and I pretty much wrote it off as a one time event. This has been like a fish a week.:fun5:
Click to expand...

Hello,
From the sound of this i think its possible you have a eunicid worm. I had the exact problem with fish dissapearing. All my fish that hid in the rocks at night dissapeared and i found that i had a eunicid worm. First time i saw the worm was at night when i was feeding some corals after the lights were out. The worm also decided to come out and steal krill from my acain and give me quite a scare as my hand was still in the water. I also could not tear up my tank so i started to lure the worm up to a rock that was the easiest single piece to remove. It took me a few weeks to catch him but all i did was put a piece of krill in a crevice on the rock and wait untill i knew for sure he was there.
 
The worm that I observed was black, about an inch thick and could stretch at least 12 inches, maybe more. I saw him expand his proboscis about two inches in circumference around the sea hare until it realized it could not keep stretching enough and spit it out. It would have had to strtch to maybe a 3 inch diameter to finish the job.
My problem is that I have never seen it leave its hole. And the hole is somewhere in the wayback. So I cannot envision luring it all the way from its hole.:hmm2:
 
I've had this problem and it was a crab. A little hitchhiker will become a fish eating menace in a matter of months. It took me two weeks to finally see him, and it took another week with a big trap to catch him.
 
My friend had a large Sally Lightfoot Crab that would eat fish. When he finally caught it, they stopped disappearing
 
My friend lost 3 pepperment shrimp in a row and then found out she had a mantis shrimp. The mantis was only about an inch long but very aggressive. She did not hear the traditional clicking sound. She found out it was there when she put some food on a skewer to feed something else and it came out and grabbed it.
 
I've had both a eunice worm and a gorilla crab. I would put my bet on the gorilla crab as he ate two of my bottom dwellers as well. I realized my problem when I found a molt/slough of its shell
 
Well, thanks for all the help.
I am convinced it is either the worm or the gorilla.
I lean towards the worm because I find it hard to believe the Gorilla could kill and devour so many medium size fish in such a short time.
The worm seems more likely except that the fish disappearance seemed to coincide with the addition of a new particular acro gorilla included...).
Caught the Gorilla last nite and let's just say he is not in the picture anymore.
So now I will try to start again. This time with just one fish.
Wish me (and him) luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Ideas for new stock for a 200L reef tank
Replies
6
Views
493
Uncle99
Uncle99
R
How is my chemistry looking?
Replies
2
Views
240
ReefKG
ReefKG
Protandrous niña
Chalk bass ate ladybug
Replies
2
Views
182
brandon429
brandon429
R
some random questions
Replies
1
Views
235
SantaMonica
S
F
Stripey for Aiptasia and Majano Removal
Replies
3
Views
915
griss
griss
Back
Top