Why are my fish dissapearing??

[reefer1970]

In the last 3 days I lost a good sized Powder blue, flame angel, 1 half of a mated pair of clown, and a mandarin goby. There have been other disappearances in the 9 months the tank has been up. No sign of disease, never see a dead fish. Corals are beautiful. I believe my parameters are alright but will list them. I do have a cleaner shrimp, blood shrimp, peppermint shrimp, lots of snails and hermits to eat a body, a 3/4" emerald crab was noticed today (I believe its an emerald, could be a hitchhiker) and lots of live rock (I thought a fish could get stuck in them but not so many at once). I don't believe my cat would eat a jumped fish and Ive never seen evidence like water on the dust behind stand. I feed once a day one cube of mysis or brine mixed with homemade fish food and a snack of seaweed. Tons of pods in sump
125G Mixed Reef
(3)Kessil 360's
Apex Gold watching temp/ PH/ Sal (I did have a .8 PH swing the other day, not sure why)
79 degrees
8.1 PH
ammonia, nitrate, nitrite 000
Salinity 1.024
DKH 9
Calcium 500 or higher

I know this question is like asking what could make my car make a clunking sound but does anything stand out?

 

[ReefPharmer]

Do you have any anemones? Smaller fish can also get stuck in the overflow or even flushed down into the sump

 

[Vorog]

Why are my fish dissapearing??

I saw a post like this a while back. And I believe it was a big serpent star that hid very well and would come out at night and get the fish when they were sleeping. Not saying that's what the case here is but I'd look around at the tank when the lights are out and see if you have a hitchhiker like that.

It was a brittle star or serpent star, I can't remember

 

[reefer1970]

You know, I do have a 4-5" serpent star. I thought they were harmless to fish. One could grab a 5" Powder Blue or a flame angel? Should he go to the land of misfits in my fuge?

 

[RGS2]

I do not believe a small serpent like yours would eat a healthy fish, let alone a 5 inch tang or all those fish in 3 days. I've had smooth red serpents for years and never an issue. They are just scavengers and good to have as part of your CUC.

 

[ca1ore]

I've had large serpent/brittle stars in my tanks for decades and never had connectable down a fish. About the only problematic one is the green serpent - and only when really large. I suppose a large mantis shrimp could be the problem, but then I'd expect a more consistent loss of fish. Losing so many in such a short period of time seems more disease related to me, despite the lack of overt symptoms.

 

[Sk8r]

Green serpent stars are the problem species, IME. Another is the fuzzy brown mushroom.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

You may have a xanthid crab in the tank. They are well known for catching sleeping fish and eating them. Any leftovers would be quickly consumed by your clean up crew. I had a xanthid a few years back that ate three of my fish.

 

[reefer1970]

Sk8r,
Fuzzy brown mushroom? I believe I have one, it's about a silver dollar size with a pinkish color and 1/2" to 3/4" long green polyps, I guess. I thought it was some kind of a toad stool. Does that sound like it? Are they poisonous? How would one kill so many fish in a short amount of time?

 

[reefer1970]

And now, I looked up that Xanthid crab and that might also be what I saw. Hes about 3/4-1", one could eat a medium sized fish? or poison one? How could I trap it? So maybe its either the fuzzy brown mushroom or xanthid crab?

 

[daquan44]

It could be a Eunice/bobbit worm that hitch hiked on your live rock or coral. Once they grow large they become what nightmares are made of. One could eat that many fish no problem.

 

[cloak]

You may have a xanthid crab in the tank. They are well known for catching sleeping fish and eating them. Any leftovers would be quickly consumed by your clean up crew.

+1

I had one catch a Hippo tang one time. It wasn't until I started flipping rocks over that I found the fish in the grasp of the crab almost half eaten. It was not a pretty sight.

 

[reefer1970]

You guys are scaring me now. So can I trap any of these or do I stay up all night with a red light and a shotgun?

 

[e048]

It's probably not a bobbit worm these things are like 1in 100 having one is like winning the reef lottery

I'd blame your crab you may have more than one sit in front of the tank with a red light about 2-3 hours after lights out and keep an eye out on the rock you could do a bottle trap but you may end up catching your cuc

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I caught my xanthid by placing a piece of raw seafood in a tall, smooth sided glass and tilting the glass against the rocks. The crab can crawl in but the glass is too smooth for it to get any traction to climb back out. It may take a couple of nights but you'll get it.

 

[reefer1970]

If I use that trapping method, do I need to take out my cleaner, blood and peppermint shrimp so they don't steal the bait?

 

[reefer1970]

I got lucky and the crab was sitting in the front of the tank in broad daylight. He's in my sump now. First of all, what kind is he? Would he kill a 5" powder blue, 2 flame angels, a coral beauty, 2 small clowns, 2 dominos, 2 mandarin gobies, a very large diamond goby and others in a month or so? Second pic is scrapes on the sides of my Singapore Tang. Could these be claw marks?
** Fricken crab pic wont upload, its 1 1/2" across, green and 8 hairy legs

 

[Irishman360]

Same thing happened to me but it was my sally light foot crab that was the culprit.

 

[reefer1970]

Hoping the pic uploads now. What is he and could he kill a bunch of fish?

 

[Irishman360]

That's an emerald crab, not harmful at all. They are algae cleaners and clean up food that the fish didn't eat.