Mysterious Clownfish Disapearances

[1entra]

Well my last clownfsih to go (the one that mysteriously disapeared yesterday!) was the smallest of the 3 clownfish that died and it was also the first one I ever bought about a month and half ago. Until it vanished it had been fit and healthy and had been feeding just fine! It had not shown any signs of attemped attacks eg. nipped fins etc! Howver I had upgraded to a bigger tank this sunday gone so that could possibly have stressed it.

I dont think it was one to jump as it had never attempted it before in all the time I had had it! I am going to make myself a top for the tank this weekend and then when I stick my next fish in; if it disapears; I can outrule the possibilty of it having jumped out!!!!

I haven't got any cats or dogs or any other pet other fish in my house so no possibility of it having jumped out and something having eaten it!

I will try to make a bottle trap later and see how I get on. Can somebody read my last post before this one and answer the questions on where to put the trap etc please.

Thank you

 

[Lynden]

Remember when using the bottle is that your cleaner shrimp could end up in there as well. Predator + easy prey + small enclosed space usually = satiated predator + prey's remains.

 

[1entra]

I think thats a good point lynden, I forgot that my cleaner shrimp might try to get at the food and end up getting caught in the trap! I think I may take him out and put him in my QT tank whilst I put the trap to work.

Do you think my serpant star might also fall for the bait as it is a right scavanger!

So can anybody tell me how/where to place the bottle trap... on the sand bed vertically or horizontly? \or to wedge it diagnally in the LR somewhere?!!! Which method would work most effectively?

 

[chrissaysyes]

horizontally would make the most sense to me. And putting the cleaner in a QT is a good idea but I personally think if you have a predator then it would have gone for the cleaner first. My cleaner has no real sense of danger, I'd seen it walk right into my anemone and barely dodge getting munched up, he also happily jumps onto my hands, chop sticks, anything that goes into the tank really...I wouldnt rule out fish dying and then being swept under a rock or maybe even getting pulled into an intake and processed by bacteria or your CUC.

 

[1entra]

Yea my cleaaner shrimp is also very friendly and jumps out from where ever he is hiding and comes straight to me and I can feed it by hand! However it does spend most of its time perched on either a powerhead or one of the heaters so maybe what ever it is attacking my fish cant get to it?

 

[1entra]

I moved my green chromis from my QT tank into my main tank yesterday as I am using the QT tank to cure some LR before adding it to my main tank. Well anyways as the QT tank is the exact same temp, SG and everything else as my main tank, it didnt take long to acclimatise and the green chromis was happily swimming around and feeding within half hour.

And guess what... I woke up today to find it has ALSO MYSTERIOUSLY VANISHED WITHOUT TRACE!!!! I am in the prcoess of making myself a bottle trap right now!!!

You wait till I catch the fiend responsible!!! I am sooo peed off!

PS. Ive just noticed one of my turbo snails has got a hole in its shell which looks like something tried to break through and get at the snail inside?!!!

 

[chrissaysyes]

wow, maybe you do have a mantis...

 

[chrissaysyes]

btw, This may be a help to you.

 

[1entra]

Thanks chrissaysyes.

I do indeed think I have a mantis or something else that is killing off my fish! I have made a bottle trap but do not plan on putting it in the tank till tommorow evening as since it's had my chromis it wont be too hungry at the minute so will wait to lure it out hopefully!

 

[1entra]

Ive just heard two loud clicks come from the inside of my tank whilst sat here on my computer. Still have not seen or even caught a glimpe of the critter responsible! But they have been the loudect clicks I've heard to date!

I think the mo-fo has grown after having ate my fish!

 

[chrissaysyes]

I must have missed something, I didnt realize you were hearing clicks...Im sure it's a mantis, trap him and ship him to Skifletch so maybe he'll finally get his mantis tank going

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, gotta get someone on my side of the pond to do that

 

[littleme1969]

I'm astonished that you never saw a mantis when adding your rock, inorder for it to be big enough to take down fish I would have expexted it to have been easily seen. I have 2 mantis in my tank ones about 1.5" and the other is smaller. I have fish in my tank that are less than an inch long and perch on the rockwork. All are alive and doing well 5 months in. I have seen the mantis shoot out and attack a small snail, but to no avail as the snail just ignored it and went about it business. Its all very suspect . If it was me Id take each chunk of rock out and imerse in clean RO for a few minutes. This is how I found both my mantis shrimp, they shot out like rockets Have a good look in all the holes in the rock. Anything big enough to catch and eat fish will be visible. I have tried the bottle traps myself when I was trying to catch a few pest crabs that I have with no sucess. The hermits and shrimp just went in and stole th e food..lol
Hope you find the answer soon, as it must be devastating to loose so many healthy fish.

 

[1entra]

It honestly is devastating to be honest with you Littleme. I just cant believe the amount of bad luck i'm having with my marine tank. I had a leak so had to upgrade to bigger tank and Iv lost 4 healthy fish!!!

If I was to immerse my LR into fresh RO water for a few minutes do you think it will kill off the corals growing on the pieces? Do you wreckon this may cause my tank to recycle due to dead livestock?

I will set the bottle trap tonight and keep trying to catch whatever it is responsible till weekend. If it doesn't work then I may have to turn to extremes and dip every individual piece of LR into fresh RO water.

By the way what is dry ice and how do you make it? Coz ive read somewhere that salt water with dry ice makes carbonated water which when LR is dipped into it sends any mantis and crabs in it running out like mad!!! Also is this method safer for corals than dipping in plain RO water?

 

[1entra]

I think I know where the little sh*t is hiding out! I just noticed a 1.25"-1.5" diameter hole in one of my pieces of LR that I could have sworn I have never seen before but then just as I started to wave it off as me being paranoid I looked at the back of the same pice of LR and there is also a new hole there which I know for defo wasn't eteher before as its I have a colony of feather dusters located there and this hole has appeared directly in the centre of the feather duster colony!

So now what do you wthink I should do? Do you think it will be residing in that piece of LR or may it have randomly dug a hole through it? What is the best form of action to take now? Should I set my bottle trap nearby the LR or should I dip that piece of LR in a bucket or fresh RO water?!

I have a colony of feather dusters on that same piece of LR along with approx 15 zoo's. I really do not wish for any of them to be killed so want the method that would work best without causing harm to them???

I still am sceptical and believe I'm deceiving myself but I can swear having a good look in my tank there I can find several new holes/tunnels that I have never seen before and look like they have recently appeared!