Noobie mistake that led into the great mystery

[Animal-Chin]

Ok so when I got my saltwater tank i had no idea how to stock it and just bought the coolest looking fish i could find. I started out by purchasing a humu humu trigger fish, then a blue spot puffer with an orange tailed butterfly fish. I had already moved in a tomato clown and blue devil damsel from my nano.

They all got along really well actually (surprisingly) for a while. Then I went on vacation and had my mother take care of the tank.

I arrived home 8 days later to an algae ridden disaster. My tank had evaporated 25% and she didn't top off. I had 2 fish left, the humu humu who was stressed and the blue devil. The puffer, clown, and butterfly were gone.

My nitrates were off the chart and the tank was a mess. I figgured the dead fish were decaying somewere so I ripped the tank apart searching for them.

They were NO WHERE to be found, not even a bone. Could the trigger have eaten them including the skeletons? SO werid that there were no signs of them.

Trigger died and now i have a ballanced beautiful reef with friendly fish. Quite a learning experience and I should have researched more. I just still can't believe the trigger would eat everything, even the bones...

 

[bighabeeb]

Did you have a clean up crew and/or live rock with potential hitchhikers in place? It's amazing how quickly they can break things down. I know that in the recent power outage, I had 4 fish (only had 4 in the tank) die...3 of them more or less in unreachable places unless I wanted to rip my rock apart. One of them was in view, but out of reach - and I watched as in around 36 hours start to finish the various crabs, shrimps, and other assorted nicknacks and doodads shredded him down to nothing.

I'm pretty sure one of the scarier things I've seen is a bristle worm on a mission.

 

[Animal-Chin]

ah , could be. I have all sorts of snails, crabs and wierd [moderator edit] things in my live rock. One morning I turned on the lights and there was a green work at least a foot long sticking straight out of a rock and suctioning to the glass. I've seen all sorts of creatures at different times. Thats a cool theory actually...lol

 

[bighabeeb]

Circle of life on a very small scale. Things die and get returned to "the earth" (in this case, the water) - their nutrients feed the crap that keeps the tank clean and so on.