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View Full Version : I have a magic reef tank


saltychris
06/30/2006, 10:59 PM
It seems I can put stuff in my tank and days later have it dissapear without a trace............First was the Coral shrimp.....then a couple of days later my chocolate chip starfish squished my yellow clown goby..............................and today i have found that my cardinal fish has gone missing without a trace.......so is it magic or is something killing everything? All I have left is the starfish, a cleaner shrimp, 4 emerald crabs,a bunch of turbo snails, 4 narsassis snails, and fire goby...........any ideas?

saltychris
06/30/2006, 11:02 PM
oh and two lil red legged hermit crabs

TJimino
06/30/2006, 11:07 PM
Hi we had a lady say her starfish did it would pat the fish and then eat it. any one else

saltychris
06/30/2006, 11:10 PM
k.. no... when the chocolate chip star fish killed the yellow goby, it was just under him... he didnt even eat it...

Marinemom
06/30/2006, 11:12 PM
If you have live rock, is it possible that you have a pistol shrimp or a mantis shrimp. They have been known to prey on tankmates and you will never find the remains.

Marinemom

MegaPods
06/30/2006, 11:36 PM
...reminds me of Jaws...i think a mantis is possible

saltychris
07/01/2006, 12:08 AM
how do I know if i have one?

saltychris
07/01/2006, 12:18 AM
anyone?

AquaReeferMan
07/01/2006, 12:48 AM
Do you hear any clicking sounds at night??

saltychris
07/01/2006, 12:51 AM
every now and then i hear a clicking sound but its during the daytime too..........

starAU
07/01/2006, 01:19 AM
As said above it is probably a shrimp, just hope it is a pistol shrimp, if it is you should be ok. If it is a mantis you need to try and get it, they're fast and shard, so be cool. Try waiting till when the lighs are off.

brownsugar
07/01/2006, 01:22 AM
Sounds like mantis shrimp and by the sounds of it more than one.

I dunno its seems odd ive had mantis in my tank and removed but they never got that destructive mayb because they were small.

Im not too sure of the clicking sound but mantis usually follow a different pattern to pistols.

They can be in the tank and not touch anything for years. But if you want to go reef they are not compatible and i would advise taking out and mayb putting in a species tank for mantis only.


I basically isolated the piece of rock that my mantis was hiding in put the rock in a freshwater dip. Mantis came out straight away .

The other time i found another hiding in a smaller piece of rock.
Frustrated i just decided to cook the shrimp in the burrow it was living in by pouring boiling hot water inside. The piece of rock was small and was no longer live after the process but was just pure hate and i had a bad day.

I dont have the patience to set a trap and coax it out as im not a fan of mantis.

But yeh some of the colours you can get on some mantis are amazing.

Very complex creatures some mantis have been known to break tank glass if their big enough.
Amazing vison trinocular and very hardy. They also have one of the fastest knows movements in the animal kingdom their claws can impact similar to the force of a small bullet, Usually for burrowing etc. Divers dont call em toesplitters for nothing - id wear a glove or something just incase if you do decide to remove.

Haha i may not like em but i did my research and gained some respect for them in the process.

Guess you make your own opinons on em .


This all is if its mantis in your tank.

You could also have sum predatory crabs of sum sort hiding.

saltychris
07/01/2006, 01:30 AM
I wouldnt even begin to know how to look for a mantis or pistol............heck i dont even know what they look like.....but i have been se up for 7 months and I just got rid of my damsels a week ago........i never had a problem with them.........but now that im adding the $15 fish the are all dissapearing.....go figure right

picnic
07/01/2006, 04:32 AM
I've had the same problem too.4 missing total.But I've heard no clicking in my tank but I've had fish die and just lay there.And like you they were the expensive ones a bicolor angle and a hippo totaling $100 cdn.And I still can find the bugger/buggers doing it.

saltychris
07/01/2006, 06:08 AM
no remains found...

chocolates mom
07/01/2006, 11:04 AM
Hey Picnic I work in Newton 78th & King George

mikenpam
07/02/2006, 12:45 AM
How big are the emeralds in your tank? I have read other posts where emeralds have been responsible for killing and eating small fish.

Bluemorningwind
07/02/2006, 01:32 AM
I agree with mikenpam. I reckon it's the emeralds.

picnic
07/02/2006, 05:59 AM
Hey chocolates mom.seems like a long commute.sry off topic.PM me I'd like to talk with someone not on the east coast or the states about LFS.sry agian for being of topic.

Nano Chris
07/02/2006, 03:53 PM
Take a look at this, this tells a bit about the mantis:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/msubpestmshrimp/a/aa110498.htm

And some tips on how to get rid of it.

saltychris
07/02/2006, 05:36 PM
I have 2 small emeralds, a medium size emerald, and one big emerald...........by big i mean the size of a quarter roughly.....i know they sometimes like to eat my snails............

asmujica
07/02/2006, 07:44 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7662708#post7662708 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by starAU
As said above it is probably a shrimp, just hope it is a pistol shrimp, if it is you should be ok. If it is a mantis you need to try and get it, they're fast and shard, so be cool. Try waiting till when the lighs are off.

[welcome]

Bluemorningwind
07/03/2006, 09:41 AM
Yep, emeralds are true crabs. Far more likely to pray on snails and fish. It could be a prawn (shrimp for the yanks ;]), but four emeralds, bugger me. Those things are hungry and four seems like a few too many.

I wouldn't discount prawns (shrimps for the yanks ;}). However, I imagine the obvious predators are the emeralds.

The emeralds really aren't needed and you can easily catch and isolate them. If you catch a prawn (shrimp for my yank friends ;?) in the process, then that's good too, but you gotta start with the obvious and easy, right?

Just watchin' Dave Matthews in Central Park. Man, what a great concert, performer and the band pounds! I've been doin' the spring neck for the last hour. STOP, BABY...what's that sound. Everybody LOOK what's going down. STOP!...

BUGGER ME!!!

saltychris
07/03/2006, 07:10 PM
could the crabs really do the job without any trace overnight?

thor32766
07/03/2006, 07:16 PM
well you might have an extreme case, but i doubt its a mantis unless its a huge one. I have a 6 inch mantis in with three small damels and hes never touched them in over a year. they even whack him upside the head, he might like it or something. Any updates, i have had a friend with a nano whose star fish ate all of his fish. sorry i couldnt help more, also where is the rock from?

saltychris
07/03/2006, 07:23 PM
the rock is from th LFS, mostly fiji, on peice of tonga and a couple peices of pacific

j_beau_13
07/03/2006, 08:54 PM
i have the same problems fish are healthy on day, you wake up the next day and theyre gone. i move all the rocks around and still cant even find a body?? i know for a fact there isnt any mantis, but i do have a medium size emerald. but how can one emerald crab devour a clownfish in one night?

Bluemorningwind
07/04/2006, 01:11 PM
It's not just the emeralds. Once the fish is dead, just about everything in the tank will have a go. Once a lot of it has been eaten, it will be carried by the current and could end up being devoured by a LPS or anemone. You don't seem to have anything other than LR. So, I imagine there are some remains or your CUC is very efficient.

LPS and anemone eat whole fish, too.

susanrosenfeld
07/05/2006, 02:04 AM
I think it's your chocolate chip star. They're carnivores, and not reef safe! Try secluding it for a couple of days and see what happens.