A painful thing to watch.

[solidsnakejv]

So I was playing video games last night. around midnight i went to take a look at my tank to see any activity by the snails since the aquarium lights were off and the kitchen light was on.

I noticed that there were like 4 Nassaraus Snails (fairly big ones), about 2 hermits and 1 emerald crab all bunched up. When i took a closer look, i realized that my Royal Gramma was in the middle of the whole commotion. My heart was broken and i was fairly angry at the snails. I felt like taking all the snails and crabs and flushing them. I tried to see if the fish was still alive, but i figured he would be moving, i coukldnt tell if he was breathing. I was gonna move the snails, but i thought of Africa (do not intervene with nature, lol).
I have no idea how this happened. The Royal Gramma was completely fine a day ago. I wasn't home most of the day yesterday so i don't recall seeing it for sure. But i know he wasn't sick.
So much for having a community tank. Who would have thought that they snails and crabs will be predators to my fish. Now i am concerned for my other fish since some of the sleep on the sand at night.

My sand is fairly clean, which is a huge suprise since i have a really bad algae problem before. I went from feeding my tank almost 3 times a day to once a day, and at times every other day. Do you guys think i should be feeding more because there might not be enough food for the CUC.
I have 4 emeralds, at least 10 hermits that are alive, once in a while i find the remaindings of a hermit, which means that somehow they are dying or being eaten. and i have a total of about 20 snails. 6 of them are big nassaraus snails. By the way is a 90 gallon tank.

 

[melosu58]

Your CUC is just doing their Job. The fish was already dead I`m sure. They are janitors and not predators.

 

[solidsnakejv]

Your CUC is just doing their Job. The fish was already dead I`m sure. They are janitors and not predators.

The fish was fine just 40 hours ago. Swimming and eating well. It did hide like always. Yesterday i was moving around some corals for better placement and didnt see anything wrong, i am not sure if i saw the gramma swimming. Then 3 hours later he was being devoured.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with Mike, although it sounds like you've tried and convicted the cleanup crew already. I think the statement "I know he wasn't sick" is where you may be steering yourself wrong. There's plenty of people I've known, that if you looked at them, you'd have no idea how truly sick they are (medically speaking!).

 

[Bige]

Who knows what was wrong with the fish. Could have a birth defect or suicide. But your lucky you got to see him dead. Other wise you would not know what happened at all.

 

[Etunes]

Could have a birth defect or suicide.

Should of had him on suicide watch, see what happens when you don't look for those signs. For example, was he jumping from high ledges of live rock tumbling at high speeds towards the sand, or maybe bearing his head in the sand maybe? Or have you seen him sticking his head out of the water to try to sufficate himself? or possibly slitting his fin with a small peice of live rock?

You said you found hermit remains around the tank, maybe he was asssasinating them 1 by 1 because he knew the hermit clan was out to get them, and when the dead of night fell, they all pounced. They hired the snails to help them slow the fish down. Does he owe anyone in the tank some coral? Its all a conspericy man i am telling you.

 

[Bige]

You said what I could not. We should have a suicide sticky!!

 

[Mitchell0605]

As the signature says; It's all about the oddballs. It sure is Etunes. *slowy creeps away while nodding and not making eye contact*

 

[Chriznat20]

Should of had him on suicide watch, see what happens when you don't look for those signs. For example, was he jumping from high ledges of live rock tumbling at high speeds towards the sand, or maybe bearing his head in the sand maybe? Or have you seen him sticking his head out of the water to try to sufficate himself? or possibly slitting his fin with a small peice of live rock?

You said you found hermit remains around the tank, maybe he was asssasinating them 1 by 1 because he knew the hermit clan was out to get them, and when the dead of night fell, they all pounced. They hired the snails to help them slow the fish down. Does he owe anyone in the tank some coral? Its all a conspericy man i am telling you.

Bwah ahahhahahhahahahah!!!!! I needed that laugh!!

 

[Chriznat20]

The fish was fine just 40 hours ago. Swimming and eating well. It did hide like always. Yesterday i was moving around some corals for better placement and didnt see anything wrong, i am not sure if i saw the gramma swimming. Then 3 hours later he was being devoured.

A LOT can happen in 40 hours.

I agree... the snails and crabs were just doing what happens in nature anyways. Your fish probably succumbed to (insert something here) and either got very weak or died.

 

[Etunes]

Thanks guys, i had alot of fun making that. I was REALLY tired last night. IN all serious though i agree that something happened in the 40 hours, wheather it was a sickness or a injury you didn't spot. I very much doubt it was suicide (even though thats always a possibility, lol). Take comfort that your clean up crew was doing its job and cleaned it up for you. Did you remove the rest of the body if there was any just in case if it was sickness?

 

[austinsdad]

No possibilty of suicide at all. And the CUC did not kill him. He died and the CUC "do what dey do".

 

[cmor1701d]

MFD (mysterious fish death/disappearance). Happens all too often. CUCs are not fish predators, they are your Clean Up Crew. IF it wasn't for them you may have had an ammonia spike from the dead, decaying fish that could have caused more death.

I recently lost a 5 year old Foxface Lo. Was it just time or did something happen (disease). One day it was fine, the next day it was on it's side stuck to a powerhead, gasping for air while no other fish was affected.

It happens. Sorry for your loss.

 

[mfdrookie516]

MFD (mysterious fish death/disappearance). Happens all too often.

i dont know that i like that very much... can we call it mdf (mysterious dead fish?)...

 

[solidsnakejv]

yeah i guess he must have just died out of nowhere. I didn't remove the dead fish, it was already gone by the next day.