disappearing fish?

[scotties82]

in the last six weeks I have lost a royal gramma, diamond watchman goby, and anthies. they are no where to be found. the royal gramma was the only fish I have put in recently. has this ever happened to anyone?

[madlarkin]

Stupid question, but have you checked the overflow and areas around/behind the sump? They might have gone overflow/carpet surfing.

[scotties82]

i did check because that has happened to me once before but no luck

[BfishLpond78]

Predators? Mantis or gorilla crab?

[Lam Ly]

It happened to me too before. I think it just die inside the rocks and got clean up by the snail or just rot out.

[scotties82]

No preditors. Peaceful reef tank

[BfishLpond78]

How long has the tank been set up? Where did you get live rock from? Did.t know if you got a hitch hiking predator....

[GobyWanKenobie]

I have had fish seem to disappear, but eventually I find something. Usually it's a blob of slime or a skeleton in a very remote spot. I think they hide before they die. Since you can't remove the body I suggest a water change, and make sure you watch your parameters. Decaying fish can mess up your tank.

[scotties82]

Tank has been set up almost two years. I have got live rock from 2 hobbiest and pc over the last two years. U make a good point about hitchhikers but i havent seen anything and my anthies was big so not sure what it would be

[Marc11]

Do you have a top on your tank, and maybe a cat in the house. Not so sure the watchman would jump but an anthias will. I also had a fish disappear for a week then show back up, no idea where he went.

[billryan]

Do you have any bta's? If so, it could be the culprit.

[scotties82]

No lid on tank. I have had a jumper before. I have two huge rbta so that could be it

[BubbaBoBobBrain]

I have two huge rbta so that could be it

That would be my guess.

[swannyson7]

Fish will rarely come in contact with a BTA unless they're sick, so I'd suspect your problem lies somewhere else. Have you had any problems with your parameters recently? Did you QT the royal gramma prior to adding it to the DT? Something like flukes may show no obvious visual signs but can be fatal to your tank inhabitants. It could also just be a vicious cycle created by one of your fish dying. Did you do water changes each time you noticed fish missing to prevent a spike in NH3 and NO3?

[skidoctor]

What inverts do you have in your tank? I had a brittle star that would sneak up on sleeping fish- left no trace. He grew huge before I figured it out. Needless to say, he visited the LFS and decided to stay.

[scotties82]

I have had stuff going on with my parimeters because i switched my program around and bought all red sea stuff. I was trying to raise alk cal and mag to see if i could get better growth but realized it wasnt worth it cause i was stressing out my tank. so i cut that out and it has been stable for about two weeks now. I did not qt the royal gamma. I did but it took a couple days just because of work and not have a permante spot for my ro, so i dont have a constant supply of water, i make it the day before a water change. I just dont understand why out of 3 fish i havent seen one dead one, just gone

[scotties82]

I have had a small break out of algea so i was thinking i mig ht be going there a cycle because of this

[swannyson7]

With several diseases, especially something like flukes (Parasitic worms that burrow into the flesh & gills of a fish) the fish will attempt to scrape their bodies against the rockwork and very well have wound up inside your rockwork. Once dead, fish decompose very quickly in our tanks, yielding nothing more than a "white blob" in 24 hours or less. The CUC and other fish will the consume the rotting fish leaving no evidence. It's possible that the BTA consumed them, but I'd be inclined to think that some sort of disease was present for that to occur. Also, a BTA (even a large one) would take a long time to completely digest a fish that was a few inches long, so you'd probably see a portion of the fish hanging out of the nems mouth.

[swannyson7]

You said that you parameters fluctuated... was it just the Ca, Alk, & Mg? Or did you have a spike in ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite? If you had significant alk swings, that affects your water's buffering capacity and would lead to swings in pH which could kill your fish. A spike in the latter three would indicate that something probably died and would not be affected by your changes in Ca/alk/Mg dosing.

[scotties82]

Ok very informative, no chAnge in nitrate nitrite or amonia. Alk was swinging becauce i was trying to raise everything so that must be the main problem

[scotties82]

Oh and i saw a video of your tank through a utube link. Very impressive, congrats

[Reefir]

I have had fish disapear in the past , no trace , csi couldnt build a case , sometimes it just happens . its nice to know that our reef tanks will consume a dead fish . the magic of the circle of life in your house . just say the rocks ate it .

[scotties82]

Lol i hear ya. I should have never started messing with my tank. Back to basics, thing r doing good now nice and steady