fish die from hitting/cutting on rocks??

[reefmaster]

Hey, i went to my tank like 5 min ago and my clown tang was under a rock in the corner of my tank. everything else was perfect. When i scooped him up, there was blood on his belly. Could he have gotten cut on a rock or something? I kno my Lamarck anglefish died a similar death.

 

[Brodie]

What other fish do you have in your tank? What inverts? What size is the tank, and with how much rock?

 

[reefmaster]

well, i have a gold stripe maroon clown fish and a green chromie. a cleaner shrimp thats like 3 in. and a green carpet anenome thats about 5-6 inches. 30 gal. tank and about 30 pounds of LR

 

[seafan]

Sounds to me like you have an uninvited mantis shrimp, one did something like that to my finger. Search for it and destroy it (evil laugh ) they come out at night, carpe nachtum.

P.S I just made up nachtum.

 

[reefmaster]

i dont think so. and what is a nachtum?? lol

 

[seafan]

Night in latin, not really but I don't know how to say "seize the night" in latin.

 

[popothemailman]

I have a mantis shrimp too, i can even hear the clicking at night. he has been there for about 8 months and still hasnt come out. any way of lureing him? btw 80gal tank150lbs lr

 

[Jason]

I know this is going to sound crazy, but have you ever thought about the MGB clown?

I have one that was originally brought back to my LFS for injuring it's owner (nipped finger). I put him in the tank along with some jawfish and the MGB clown killed both of the jawfish. I still have the clown, he's in my new tank with a orange shoulder tang a lawnmower blenny and a 4 stripped damsel. the 4 stripe damsel only comes out at feeding unless he's at least 2 feet away from the clown, the orange shoulder tang doesn't get beaten to death because he's way faster than the clown is and the lawnmower blenny does his own thing. the clown already killed a carpenters flasher wrasse.

Anytime I put something new in the tank the clown goes and inspects it. if he doesn't like it, he knocks it over and whips it a few times with his tail. He swims toward the glass and tried to bite me when I move up to the tank to fast, and he is always rearranging the sandbed to his liking.

Maybe your clown isn't that way, but it is something to think about.

Edit: this is a picture of a feeder fish he killed and drug into his anemone about 24 hours after I took him home....... this was about a year ago

 

[schoeplein]

Maroons are the meanest of the clowns from my personal experience. But seems unrelated to this situation. You definitely have some sort of unwanted predator in your tank. Definitely do a good searching for a suspect mantis and burn him . (or put him in a nano, your choice)

Fish generally dont intentionally hurt themselves (unless they're itching the crap out of themselves on the sides from ich... which is another possibility).