Anemone is eating healthy chromis....

[Dominic M]

Perfectly healthy chromis always swimming laps, eating well got along great with the clowns and I leave the tank for a couple hours and come back to see my chromis being eaten while my clowns are sleeping next to it, should I be worried about my other fish? Any idea what could have happened? I could use some help...

Thanks, Dominic

 

[blaxsun]

1. It died and drifted into the anemone (and anemones aren't one to turn down a free meal).
2. It wasn't quite as healthy as you thought and got snagged by the anemone (death by misadventure).
3. The clownfish provoked the chromis and lured it into a trap ("It's a trap!").

I've yet to lose a single fish to an anemone (and I've got about 20 different ones), and the only fish I lost to a 'plant' was a naso tang to an elegance coral (tangs are so stupid).

 

[Cell]

Anemone not the cause.

 

[Dominic M]

1. It died and drifted into the anemone (and anemones aren't one to turn down a free meal).
2. It wasn't quite as healthy as you thought and got snagged by the anemone (death by misadventure).
3. The clownfish provoked the chromis and lured it into a trap ("It's a trap!").

I've yet to lose a single fish to an anemone (and I've got about 20 different ones), and the only fish I lost to a 'plant' was a naso tang to an elegance coral (tangs are so stupid).

So if it wasn't killed by the anemone then what should I do? Water change? I don't want to lose more fish. Also I like the reference lol.

 

[blaxsun]

So if it wasn't killed by the anemone then what should I do? Water change? I don't want to lose more fish. Also I like the reference lol.

How many other fish do you have? I'd maybe test your water parameters(including ammonia).

 

[Dominic M]

How many other fish do you have? I'd maybe test your water parameters(including ammonia).

I just have 2 ocellarias clowns and 1 red fire fish. Ill test water tonight when I get home but ammonia has been very low or undetectable consistently.

 

[blaxsun]

I just have 2 ocellarias clowns and 1 red fire fish. Ill test water tonight when I get home but ammonia has been very low or undetectable consistently.

Chromis have a tendency to just die unexpectedly (at least that iI've found). I wouldn't necessarily panic. Run the tests first and see if there's anything out of the ordinary and check-in on the other fish to observe if you see anything unusual with any of them.

 

[Dolphins18]

Bubble tips are not sticky enough to catch healthy live fish. See if the fish has any red marks on its side. Those are notorious for uronema these days.

 

[Greybeard]

I've got some BTA's... Well, a few

With this 24" RBTA clone garden, I've not lost a single fish to the 'nems. Even my little midas blenny, which lives in the crack under the nems, no problem. I'd tend to doubt that your little nem grabbed a healthy fish out of the water. Possible? Sure, but highly unlikely.

I don't do chromis. Just not something I want, but they're cheap, almost all are wild captured, and they're sold in huge quantities... highly likely to come in with some sort of health problem.

How long have you had the chromis? The anemone? How long has the tank been up?

 

[Arego]

Sometimes things just happen, by virtue of owning an anemone these risks are inherent. There are only anecdotal reasons for what happened. Can this happen again? Yes. I can't think of a way to stop it short from removing the anemone.

Sorry for your loss

 

[SashimiTurtle]

My guess would be uronema. Chromis seem to just have it, and a healthy looking fish can decline very rapidly to the point where a BTA could snag it.