Predators in Tank

[delaneymohr]

It all started when I stopped overfeeding my tank. I now feed every other day. Whereas I was feeding once a day and way too much food.

Over the past 2 months I have been coming home to find one of my fish completely Missing. It has happened 5 times now and it has been roughly every 2 weeks. Last night I came home and my Filament Flasher Wrasse was gone. He's a jumper but my canopy is grated and I have had him for well over a year with out any problems. The other 3 improbable fish were
Canary Blenny (had him almost 2 years and he was venomous)
Pajama cardinal (Another 1 1/2 years)
Green Cromis (about 1 year)
Oh and a year old Skunk Cleaner shrimp (he was the first victim)

Frustrated - I pulled every piece of LR from the tank, all the corals and inspected each and every piece for Predators. The only thing I could find were a 7 and a 9 inch bristle worms. I was very thorough and used magnifying glasses and flashlight to look and some long tweezers to Prod (thats how I found the Bristles).

I even prodded the Shallow sand bed looking for a buried crab or something anything..

I couldn't even find remnants of the fish.. And yes I checked all around my tank and in the overflow and even in the pipes.

My question is How big would a Crab need to be to take down a 3 inch fish?

I want to restock but fear it will just be more food for the evil in the tank.

My remaining fish are:
Purple Tang (king of the tank)
Cherub Angel (5years +)
Engineer Goby (1 month)
Royal Gamma (2 years)
Oscellaris Clown Tank raised (1 year)


Oh and re-aquascaping was just great fun everyone should try it from time to time. I haven't touched it in almost 3 years and now I am sorry I did.

Any advice?
Thanks
Delaney.

 

[tnyga]

is it reef ready with an overflow if can get in??

 

[jade76]

dude...you may have a MANTIS SHRIMP. they are fast as lighting and stealthy as a ninja. and they will eat anything they can catch.

 

[gwhiz]

jade76;117408 wrote: dude...you may have a MANTIS SHRIMP. they are fast as lighting and stealthy as a ninja. and they will eat anything they can catch.

I doubt it. He'd know if he has a mantis--they're constantly hollowing out a rock or something...you'll hear tapping on a regular basis. Trust me...I've caught 4 so far. I've got one in my QT tank right now and one still in my display....somewhere....near the bottom of the pile.

 

[cameron]

Crabs don't have to be very big to kill fish and they hide very well. I will bet you have a nasty sucker in the rocks somewhere. I had a black crab of death in my tank and he was a PIA.

You could try creating a trap to lure out the predator or stick a shrimp on stick and wiggle it by rock work. If it is a crab, he will throw a big pincher out trying to snag it.

If it is a predator and took down a wrasse, most likely any fish its size will be food for it. Wrasses are usually not pushovers.

 

[FutureInterest]

Man that sucks. I'm thinking that you might have some sort of predatory polychaete in there somewhere. As thorough as you were, it seems much more likely that you have a bad worm in there over a bad crab as crabs are easier to discover. Sure you caught a couple of big ones but I bet there's a monster of a worm in there somewhere deep...

 

[delaneymohr]

Yea I think I am going to have to go get a big bottle of tonic or something and make a trap. I am completely frustrated and pissed all the same. THere MUST be a f*&#ing Crab in the ROCK Somewhere. He only gets hungry every 2 weeks or so so I am thinking I'll put the trap in at the end of the week and see what I get.

How big is not too Big? Small enough to fit through the 2 liter opening or should I go Gator Aid bottle?

Thanks
D.

 

[ralph atl]

I would venture a guess that you're going to have to "sneak" up on it at night in order to find out what you have. Of course, try some kind of trap, too!

 

[jefft]

Get a flashlight with a red lens on it so you can covertly watch the tank without spooking the critters. You may have to camp out awhile, but you should eventually spot something. Some of the things you see can be scary looking sometimes.

 

[cameron]

I went months without seeing my crab, but I could certainly believe it is a worm as well. Again a big piece of shrimp should lure him out even if you have to do it at night.

 

[soarin']

jefft;117910 wrote: Get a flashlight with a red lens on it so you can covertly watch the tank without spooking the critters. You may have to camp out awhile, but you should eventually spot something. Some of the things you see can be scary looking sometimes.

I got a flashlight from The Sports Authority for camping. It's an LED light with 3 red LED's in the middle and 12 white LED's in a ring around them. There are two independent switches for the red and white LED's.

It's very easy to use and highly useful for nighttime tank-watching.
Highly recommended!

 

[cameron]

Nice... you should add that to the useful items and where to find them thread.