Disappearing act

Whatnow · Dec 16, 2015

I was wondering why 3 Blue Reef Chromis 3/4 inch long can go missing in a week an a half? Now when I got them from LiveAquaria.com one had a bruise on its side like it got pinched by a net and he was the first to disappear after 2 days he was doing okay and eating.

Second one which was slightly larger vanished 3 days later and he was full of life and eating great.

The third one vanished last night he was in great shape/ eating fine...?

All seemed to disappear in the middle of the night with no trace. Can't find any body or pieces.
Only thing left in the tank now is a Duncan coral, green toadstool leather, hermit crabs, snails and a lone 1.25" Percula Clownfish. Rocks are half live and rest dead rock.

constantflow · Dec 16, 2015

Are they on the floor?

ReefBuzz · Dec 16, 2015

Snacks for hermit crabs once they die

Reefing Madness · Dec 16, 2015

There can be only one.

Whatnow · Dec 16, 2015

Reefing Madness said:
There can be only one

ROFL

constantflow said:
Are they on the floor?

No

ReefBuzz said:
Snacks for hermit crabs once they die

It just seems suspect that 2 out the three were healthy and then boom overnight and only at night they are gone?

vic5hands · Dec 16, 2015

your tank is hungry

Whatnow · Dec 16, 2015

Now I know that the blue reef chromis were very small and slept in crevices in the rock -is it possible that the hermit crabs pounced them while sleeping

Reefing Madness · Dec 16, 2015

Oh its easy to say, they killed each other, and your hidden the Bristle worm colony ate them.

Stacey Keyes · Mar 9, 2016

i

I bought 4 green Chromis the other night and the following night I only had 3, searched for hours and could not find it. Two night later I bought another 4 and the remaining 3 were still swimming. As soon as I added the new 4, I could only count 6. Again I searched for hours and could find nothing. I read a lot of threads that say they are aggressive and weed out the weak ones ... but this happened instantly. I stumbled on a thread that suggested the smallest ones get sucked into the filter or skimmer or overflow. I didnt take apart my filter or skimmer yet but I believe this is what happened to mine since I have seen no aggression and it is not likely 1 instantly played hooky from the school. I think they dispersed as soon as I added them and 1 went to the wrong place. I remember there was a smaller one in the last batch of 4 and that is the missing one. It took reading ~ 50 posts on similar missing chromis threads and most posts jump to the conclusion of it being attacked or eaten but I think most of those missing chromis went tube surfing

sbash · Mar 9, 2016

These fish notoriously dwindle their numbers down to one. It is the third certainty in the universe, death, taxes and a single chromis...

All joking aside, they actually do kill off the weakest one and repeat the process until there is only one left. Chromis are fairly small fish, between crabs, shrimp, nassarius snails, etc, you may never find the body.

briancarterkc · Mar 9, 2016

sbash said:
These fish notoriously dwindle their numbers down to one. It is the third certainty in the universe, death, taxes and a single chromis...

All joking aside, they actually do kill off the weakest one and repeat the process until there is only one left. Chromis are fairly small fish, between crabs, shrimp, nassarius snails, etc, you may never find the body.

This. They seem all friendly-schooly, but at night they each want their own "turf" for sleeping and stake a pretty big claim. I've tried chromis schools twice and both times ended up with one jerk that claims the whole tank as his.