Clown Disappearance a Mystery!

[sfgdesign]

Hey! I've recently set up my first saltwater tank (a little over a week ago), a 29gallon with about 35 lbs. live rock + live sand. Everything tested perfect for introducing an Ocellarius (sp?) Clownfish yesterday. After doing a 1 hr. long "measuring cup" acclimation, I put him in the tank. He was a bit erratic, wiggling quite a bit, but eventually he slowed down a little and started exploring the tank. However, he liked to hang out in an upper corner by the thermometer (tank is at 80 degrees). I fed him New Life Spectum Pellet Marine Food, but crushed it up a little as he was having trouble dealing with the pellet size, but seemed to go for the crushed bits just fine. He was doing fine this morning, too. Since I started to have an outbreak of diatoms, I put a Fluval Clearmax filter bag in the back filter area (biocube w/out the bio-balls) and left the light off, hoping to stem their growth. When I got home tonight, Emmet was gone! And I mean GONE. No dead body, no body parts, nothing in the filter areas, nothing in or around the rocks. NOTHING. I know there's a smallish hermit crab in there, two snails, and at least 2 other small crabs (the fish was much bigger than them). If there's anything else in there, it hasn't made an appearance. He couldn't have jumped out because the tank is entirely covered, which also precludes the cat getting him. Any thoughts on his mysterious disappearance? Calling Jessica Fletcher!!

 

[all4wheels2]

Your clean up crew is enough to devour that clownfish in a matter of minutes, doesn't matter the size of the fish. I've had the unfortunate visual of this. As soon as the fish hits the sand bed dead, it's gone within 10 minutes. Both the snails and hermits will eat any type of food and they are VERY efficient! You might find some orange on the sand bed (fish scales, but those would be the only remains).

Maybe move some rocks around. Your clownfish might be hiding somewhere. Good luck. Of nothing else, you know your cleanup crew is adequate.

 

[Starchar]

The "two other small crabs" would be suspect. What type of crabs were these?

 

[Keithhjs]

Just curious cuz you said you just set up the tank a week ago. Did you transfer live rock or a filter from an existing tank? If not and if is only a week or two since setup then most likely it's not cycled.

+1 on the cuc taking care of it. Something goes in my tank and its taken care of pretty quick, especially if you also have other hitchhikers helping you don't know about like bristle worms, or in my case quite the nassarius snail colony lol.

 

[sfgdesign]

I didn't really think the crabs and the hermit crab could be that quick, since hermit doesn't move all that quickly and the two other crabs stay well-hidden, but who knows what happens in the hours when I'm gone? Another response to my post said that perhaps the fish died on its own because the tank hadn't cycled properly yet in only a week. I suppose that's possible, and then the crabs took care of the carcass. Thanks for your input!

 

[sfgdesign]

The "two other small crabs" would be suspect. What type of crabs were these?

I don't know what kind of crabs they were; they were I guess what you'd call "hitch-hikers", came in with the live rock (as did the hermit and snails). I tried to look them up, but the closest in appearance to one of them was the emerald crab. This one is only about 1/2-3/4" wide, but is sand-colored instead of green. The other one is small and looks sort of orange and white striped. Another post suggested that the new tank hadn't properly cycled yet and that the Clown may have died from that and then been "cleaned up" by the crabs. A distinct posssibility. Thanks for your answer!

 

[sfgdesign]

Just curious cuz you said you just set up the tank a week ago. Did you transfer live rock or a filter from an existing tank? If not and if is only a week or two since setup then most likely it's not cycled.

+1 on the cuc taking care of it. Something goes in my tank and its taken care of pretty quick, especially if you also have other hitchhikers helping you don't know about like bristle worms, or in my case quite the nassarius snail colony lol.

I bought the live rock from a LFS, and I know it had "hitch-hikers" on it. Yeah, the tank set-up is only about a week old, but I had the water tested for all the "bad stuff" and the sales associate seemed to think it would be okay to introduce a fish at that point, as had all the instructions I've read. I have the Clearmax filter in and used Stability, so I'm not sure what the problem would have been, but I admit I'm new at this and there's lots of things I'm still learning about the process. Thanks for your reply!

 

[HovaRockz]

My emerald caught my domino damsel sleeping and killed it and ate it they are nocturnal and by you keeping the light off it might have found ur clown fish

 

[sfgdesign]

My emerald caught my domino damsel sleeping and killed it and ate it they are nocturnal and by you keeping the light off it might have found ur clown fish

Oh! Really? I guess that poses a problem. I didn't put the crab in the tank; it came with the live rock, and it lives in places I can't get to, so removing it is next to impossible (it never comes fully out of the rock and hides in the various holes and depressions). How big is your emerald? Should I try to get rid of it? It's possible that the fish died on its own and the crabs only cleaned up after it, but I can't be sure without having witnessed it myself. Thanks for your reply!

 

[HovaRockz]

Well mines is the size of a quarter I will be setting a trap soon for him so I can catch him and put him in his new home which will be in my sump

 

[sfgdesign]

Well mines is the size of a quarter I will be setting a trap soon for him so I can catch him and put him in his new home which will be in my sump

This one is somewhere between a dime and a nickel, I'd say. I don't know if he's an emerald or not, but the body shape looked about the same, if not the color. I'd be interested to know how to build a trap for him, and if your works. Thanks!

 

[HovaRockz]

What color is yours?

 

[Keithhjs]

I keep four emeralds in my reef with tiny gobies, mandarin dragonet, shrimps, snails, etc. and haven't had any problems. Mine don't pick my corals either. Some are fine, some are not. They definitely will scavenge a carcass for sure. Crabs are opportunistic feeders and will hunt more when they dont find enough to eat.

 

[Beengirl]

Sorry about your clown. If your tank has only been up a little over a week, it's likely not cycled yet and the clown succumbed to ammonia or nitrite poisoning and then the CUC did its job. What did you use for an ammonia source for the cycle? What were your ammo, nitrite and nitrate levels before adding the clown?

 

[sfgdesign]

What color is yours?

Mine is actually tan-beige, like the color of sand or the inside of the live rock (the actual rock color, not the stuff that grows on it), but the body shape is like the pictures of emeralds I've seen. The other crab is even smaller, sort of orange and white, and a little spiny-looking, not smooth like the larger crab.

 

[sfgdesign]

I keep four emeralds in my reef with tiny gobies, mandarin dragonet, shrimps, snails, etc. and haven't had any problems. Mine don't pick my corals either. Some are fine, some are not. They definitely will scavenge a carcass for sure. Crabs are opportunistic feeders and will hunt more when they dont find enough to eat.

I hear the mandarins are difficult to maintain because of their diet. Are you having success? How do you get them to eat? I really like the look of them, but as I'm not yet having success even keeping a clown alive, I promise to wait on that for a good while. Meanwhile, I guess I'm glad to know that my "clean-up crew" does a good job, I just hope they're not actually killing the fish. The Clown was the only fish introduced to the tank, so was a prime target. So how do you know when it's time to add fish? The water tested fine on all levels, and I didn't even have much of a die-off when I put the live rock in during tank set-up.

 

[Beengirl]

You want to have a good strong cycle with ammonia reaching at least 4ppm, so that when you add an actual fish, there won't be a mini cycle. So not having a lot of die-off isn't actually working in your favor. That means you probably didn't have a very high ammonia spike, which means not that many BB grew. At the end of a good strong cycle, the nitrates are usually quite high and a PWC is required prior to adding fish. So if LFS said you had no nitrates, then you didn't have a cycle at all.

 

[sfgdesign]

Thanks to all that commented and gave advice; I learned some good stuff! However, the good news is, Emmett has re-surfaced! He actually DID leap the barrier into the filter area and had somehow got himself under the bottom grid that allowed for water flow under the bio-balls. I did not see him under there when I removed all the filter materials. Since I don't use the bio-balls, this grid is unnecessary, so after fishing him out (so to speak), I put the grid over the TOP of the area to prevent a recurrence. Meanwhile, Emmett is back in the main tank part and actually seems more relaxed than he did before he took his adventure. I'm glad to see that he wasn't killed by the water quality or the crabs.

 

[sfgdesign]

You want to have a good strong cycle with ammonia reaching at least 4ppm, so that when you add an actual fish, there won't be a mini cycle. So not having a lot of die-off isn't actually working in your favor. That means you probably didn't have a very high ammonia spike, which means not that many BB grew. At the end of a good strong cycle, the nitrates are usually quite high and a PWC is required prior to adding fish. So if LFS said you had no nitrates, then you didn't have a cycle at all.

Thanks so much for all the good information! I probably mis-spoke when I said there was "nothing" in the water; I think I meant that the associate at the LFS said there was nothing harmful about the water and that it looked ideal for introducing fish at that point. All levels were where they were supposed to be. As it turns out, the water DIDN'T kill Emmett. He actually had gotten himself under a grid in one of the filter compartments in the back of the bio-cube. Got him out today and he's fit as a fiddle and seems more relaxed than when I first put him in the tank, a good sign I hope. I've blocked access to the filter area now so there won't be a recurrence of that adventure. But thank you for explaining the cycling more fully to me. As a newbie to saltwater, I need all the help I can get!

 

[HovaRockz]

Lol he must have watched the movie "nemo"