Help fish disappeared

[jay917]

Today all my fish disappeared. I had 2 clowns and 2 damsels. This morning i woke up and saw a hermit eating the carcus of one of my clowns. About 2 weeks ago i moved all of them into a new tank. I had no problems in the old tank. The only thing that came with the new tank was 2 hermits, a brittle star fish, and couple of other fish that died becuase something was eating at it. What can this be? I am thinking it is a mantis shrimp but i had no problems with my live rock in my other tank. Can it be the hermit killing all the fish?

 

[electrikat]

Is it a reef safe dwarf hermit or is it a regular hermit like you see at the beach(the big ones)? The big ones do eat fish.

 

[jay917]

I am pretty sure its a dwarf hermit... its pretty small

 

[Tangaloo]

I've known brittle stars to eat fish if they can get a hold of them but thats usually not the case. Have you tested your tank lately? A mantis shrimp also sounds liek agood guess but i don even know how to find them if there is one.

 

[lando]

We need more info on your tank. What is the new set up? All parameters okay? It is most likely that your fish died for some reason and the crabs were just dong clean up. If it was a mantis, I doubt you would see the fish at all. They like to keep their pray in their den.

 

[jay917]

I have no bodies in the tank anymore. They all disappeared. Im guessing something in the tank ate the dead bodies. Can a brittle star do this? they all dissappeared within 1 week.

 

[jay917]

o yea i had a professional check out my water quality and he said that it was good. My corals seem to be really healthy too.

 

[mjvincent]

Brittle stars can eat fish, but I doubt one brittle ate all of the fish in that period of time. I also doubt that any one predator took out all of the fish in this period of time. My guess would be that you have gotten some sort of fish disease brought on by the stress of the move to the new tank...

 

[jay917]

The fish looked pretty heathy when i put it in tho. I also lost 2 tangs that came with the tank the next day after i moved it in. One of the tangs looked like its skin was comming off.