Dead and missing fish

[Bengals888]

Hi

I have a IM 25 gallon lagoon. Been running over for a year. I had recently restocked it with
a mandarin, red scooter blenny, 2 scarlet cleaner shrimp and 1 peppermint shrimp.

After 3 days I found the mandarin dead and side of it’s stomach was gutted. The blenny was doing great for over a week eating. I could not find it at all today. I even pulled all the rocks out sifted through some of the sand. I have a cover so fish cannot jump out.

I never put crabs in there. Do I have killer shrimps? There is plenty for them to eat. I really upset since I cannot even find the blenny.

Ugh...

 

[norfolkgarden]

Sorry to give you the bad news.

But
1. A mandarin needs at least a 75 gallon tank with an insane amount of live rock and a large amount of pods that have grown in the tank for six months before the Mandarin is added.

2. The scooter blenny competes with the Mandarin for pods.
So they both starve.

Unless you spend a fortune in pods restocking every week you can't even keep a scooter blenny alive in that size tank. The pods just don't have enough time to replenish themselves naturally.

Maybe some type of sand sifting goby that stays small? Or a goby and Randall's pistol shrimp pair.

 

[norfolkgarden]

And a purple Firefish for color.

 

[Bengals888]

Thanks.

They were not starving. They eat tisbe pods and I also feed bbs daily.