5 Clown Fish MIA

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

I had 8 clown fish and can only find/locate/count 3 now. I checked all around the tank / on the floor / under the stand to make sure none of them had jumped and there aren't any outside of the tank. The overflow is covered so they can't have gotten in there.

In the tank are 2 Yellow Tangs, a Red Hawk Fish, a Blue Spotted Puffer Fish, and some Green Chromis, and a Bubble Tip Anemone.

I don't suspect the Tangs, Puffer, or the Chromis nor do I suspect the other Clown fish.

The clowns are hosting in the anemone but I don't think he's eaten them - at least I can't see him having eaten 5 clown fish in such a short amount of time regardless. This anemone was hosting these same fish at the LFS [bought them together].

Being that the hawk fish is carnivorous that is my big suspicion - is that he's hanging out and perhaps grabbing a clown when it goes by? The hawk fish has been eating frozen mysis / flake food when I feed the rest of the tank - but I can't say he's been eating a lot.

At any rate - I haven't noticed any other losses besides the clowns and see no bones/corpses/anything left from them at all in the tank.

I did use all dry rock from BRS so I don't imagine that I have any nasty hitchhikers.

Any suggestions? I could obviously take the hawk fish out if he's eating my other fish but I don't want to do that if he isn't the problem and I haven't seen him do it.

I do love clown fish and don't want to lose them all but I am fine if the remaining 3 are all I have.

mjlash22 · Mar 10, 2018

I'm not an expert on all the fish you mentioned, but I do know that clowns can get aggressive/territorial in numbers more than 2 (pair), unless in a fairly large tank. Not saying this was what happened, but maybe a possibility?

sfin52 · Mar 10, 2018

Five clown missing I doubt the hawk fish would have eaten that many in a short amount of time.

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

mjlash22 said:
I'm not an expert on all the fish you mentioned, but I do know that clowns can get aggressive/territorial in numbers more than 2 (pair), unless in a fairly large tank. Not saying this was what happened, but maybe a possibility?

I was told that I wanted only 2, or at least 5+. I went with 8 as I got 2 of each different type.

They lived together in the tank for weeks without issues and all hung out in the anemone. I never once spotted any aggression at all between any of them.

The three remaining are all hanging out in the anemone and appear to be getting along just fine.

sfin52 said:
Five clown missing I doubt the hawk fish would have eaten that many in a short amount of time.

I find it doubtful as well - but I'm really quite baffled as to where these fish could have gone.

mjlash22 · Mar 10, 2018

What kind/how many inverts do you have, if at all? Do you have any other pets, like a cat or dog?

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

mjlash22 said:
What kind/how many inverts do you have, if at all? Do you have any other pets, like a cat or dog?

This tank is in my office - there are no other animals besides the fish.

I have a Long Spine Urchin, a Pincushion Urchin, 2 Turbo Snails, 6 Nasarius Snails, 6 Nerite Snails, 6 Cerith snails.

mjlash22 · Mar 10, 2018

I'm at a loss. If you had a lot of crabs I could see how they could quickly dissapear, but with that amount of snail, I'm less likely to believe your cleanup crew could have done all that.

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

mjlash22 said:
I'm at a loss. If you had a lot of crabs I could see how they could quickly dissapear, but with that amount of snail, I'm less likely to believe your cleanup crew could have done all that.

Yeah I'm not sure - unless they're dead and hidden inside the rocks where I can't see their bodies.

Instigate · Mar 10, 2018

They couldn't be hiding? What types of clowns are these?

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

Instigate said:
They couldn't be hiding? What types of clowns are these?

Two Snowflake. Two ocellaris, two that their primary color is black / dark. Two true percula.

I just fed the tank and only 3 clowns ate. If they’re hiding they’re not hungry.

sfin52 · Mar 10, 2018

I’ve never seen a clown not hungry. I suggest looking all over and including the sump.

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

sfin52 said:
I’ve never seen a clown not hungry. I suggest looking all over and including the sump.

That's the thing - I already did that. The overflow is covered so unless they could fit through the weir [they couldn't possibly] they couldn't be in the sump. That said I did look in the sump for good measure, in front of the tank, next to the tank, behind the tank. The only thing I haven't done is lift the rocks looking for bodies - and I'd prefer not to disturb the rockwork.

VR28man · Mar 10, 2018

Have you had an ammonia spike? Or maybe by now a nitrate spike.

bean2986 · Mar 10, 2018

Just checked out your build thread. Looks like you are stocking pretty fast and not using a QT? Could be a disease?

When was the last time you saw the 4 clowns that suddenly dissapeared? Whatever got(aka disease) the one that was stuck to the power head could have got others. I'd take apart the rocks and check for bodies to avoid an ammonia spike.

Also, Nassarius snails can eat a fish pretty quick. Three of them devoured a firefish in about an hour in my tank once. If the clowns are very tiny it's possible they are just gone already.

jeffp1 · Mar 10, 2018

I had something similar to this happen to me years ago. Ended up being a Mantis Shrimp that hitchhiked on some new rock that I had bought earlier. When a fish swam close to him, it would kill it.

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

bean2986 said:
Just checked out your build thread. Looks like you are stocking pretty fast and not using a QT? Could be a disease?

When was the last time you saw the 4 clowns that suddenly dissapeared? Whatever got(aka disease) the one that was stuck to the power head could have got others. I'd take apart the rocks and check for bodies to avoid an ammonia spike.

Also, Nassarius snails can eat a fish pretty quick. Three of them devoured a firefish in about an hour in my tank once. If the clowns are very tiny it's possible they are just gone already.

They're 'normal' sized clowns that you'd generally see in a store - not the giant female ones.

I don't think it's a disease - the one I did find dead it was perfectly fine and then WHAMMO on the power head. I was counting them every day for a while and watching them closely. The next day - boom - dead fish. No signs of being sick / weak / nothing.

I checked him out before I tossed him and there were no signed of issues with his gills, fins, eyes, skin/scales / anything.

Normally I would use a QT but as everything I have gotten is from the same place / same water / and a few of them have been there for quite some time before I bought them [I regular there, check the fish out all the time] I wasn't super worried about it.

Any new additions at this point, if I were to make any as I likely won't as it's pretty heavily stocked now, would be QT'd.

jeffp1 said:
I had something similar to this happen to me years ago. Ended up being a Mantis Shrimp that hitchhiked on some new rock that I had bought earlier. When a fish swam close to him, it would kill it.

I did have some live rock in here for a bit and pulled it out for the dry rock - so I guess it's possible I have something like that but I don't think so.

TinyChocobo · Mar 10, 2018

VR28man said:
Have you had an ammonia spike? Or maybe by now a nitrate spike.

Tank is / was cycled before I added the fish.

It turned out my test kit was reading erroneously high when I tested 0.5 PPM Ammonia - used another test kit and it didn't read any at all.

I have an 8x8x4 and 2 8x8x1 blocks of MarinePure in my sump that I ran my cycle with in a 40 Gallon Breeder before setting up my tank.

VR28man · Mar 11, 2018

I meant that if the clowns decomposed they might (probably would) turn to ammonia. With that much marine pure it probably would be quickly converted to nitrate.

The 0.5 might have been the spike. Again, if there is a nitrate spike, it might explain what happened to the clowns. But unfortunatley not what got them.