Disappearing fish . . . what is happening?!?!?

Mini Coop · Jun 12, 2019

Hello!!

About 2 months ago, I lost an anthia somewhere along the line. Could be anything. Then, a few days after I noticed her missing, I caught my Niger Triggerfish with my Wheeler's Shrimp Goby in her mouth. Accused as the murderer, she was immediately removed and was put into Quarantine!

However, since then, I have lost my male anthia (he was not super small), my scooter blenny, and now I am missing my Bella Goby! I was on vacation last week, and upon my return (we have a very reliable fish sitter), noticed the sand was not stirred like normal. He was just gone.
I will say that I was missing my pintail fairy wrasse - found her in the overflow - and saved her - but no sign of anyone else.
I also have a diamond goby, but they don't do near as well at cleaning sand!

So . . . My bella was NOT small!!
Would a serpent starfish eat fish like that? Could he have killed the fish that I found the trigger eating earlier? And she was just picking up remains?
The only other thing in the tank is a large blue leg crab.
There has been NO SIGN of any of these fish!! None! no skin, no skeleton, nothing in the filter socks! nothing!

Please help! I already can't keep corals . . . fish has been my "expertise" and now they are vanishing!
Do you think I should go ahead and put the trigger back in the main tank? Maybe a timeout did her well?

Any advice is appreciated. I can't keep losing them like this! I have QT'd EVERY SINGLE THING in my tank. NOTHING has entered without an extensive QT process.

Thank you!

DJ H · Jun 12, 2019

There might be a black hole in your tank

DeniseAndy · Jun 12, 2019

I am sorry to hear about your losses.
How long has your tank been up and running? How old were the fish?

DeniseAndy · Jun 12, 2019

I ask because I had a horrible loss of all fish about a year ago after my tank switch over. I had these fish over 10 years on some. No idea what hit them, but got them all super fast. Even pulling out and qt they died. Really hard. I think it was a toxin, but all be darn if I know how it happened.

Mini Coop · Jun 12, 2019

DeniseAndy said:
I am sorry to hear about your losses.
How long has your tank been up and running? How old were the fish?

Tank has been up for almost 2 years now. I had the starfish before in my 120, which I had for about 2 years.
The male anthia was medium sized. Bella was probably not full grown, but not tiny at all. Scooter Blenny I had for 3 years.

Other fish:
Blonde naso
2 female anthias
powder blue
sailfin
foxface
blue star leopard wrasse
fairy pintail wrasse
mccosker flasher
diamond goby
cardinal
2 clowns
flame hawk

Rscott · Jun 12, 2019

Sorry to hear. You didn’t put any new live rock in recently? Potential hitch hicker?

I’m curious, why can’t you keep corals?

HawaiianReef · Jun 12, 2019

I lost a clown a couple months ago. Same thing, just disappeared. I tore apart my overflow plumbing.. ALL of it from DT to sump. Nothing. Moved rocks around... Nothing. For a week I kept looking on the floor around the tank thinking I'll see something. Never did figure it out. I figured it Has to be SFL (Spontaneous Fishy Liquification).

Mini Coop · Jun 12, 2019

Rscott said:
Sorry to hear. You didn’t put any new live rock in recently? Potential hitch hicker?

I’m curious, why can’t you keep corals?

Nope - no new anything in a long while. All rock was dry when I set the tank up.

Good question. I have a couple hammers doing ok. And a couple acans. I have a duncan doing ok - my nitrates are high, and so I am working on those. So I can't keep anything else very well. I have Kessils.. I think I need better lights too.

Jay Z · Jun 12, 2019

Is but a couple clowns and a Wyze camera with a as card and see what happens when your not looking.

DeniseAndy · Jun 13, 2019

With the tang,foxface,trigger bioload, it could be your major source of nitrates.

So tank running 2years. When were the fish added and other items added in the process? Trying to figure out if you have had an ammonia or bacterial bloom that poisoned the fish or a predator somewhere.

I have had a serpent star eat many fish before I noticed it. Crazy thing. Caught it doing it one night long after lights out.

Camera would be a good idea to see if something is going on overnight.

Rscott · Jun 13, 2019

Mini Coop said:
Nope - no new anything in a long while. All rock was dry when I set the tank up.

Good question. I have a couple hammers doing ok. And a couple acans. I have a duncan doing ok - my nitrates are high, and so I am working on those. So I can't keep anything else very well. I have Kessils.. I think I need better lights too.

You don’t like your kessils?
I just got A360x.

Jesterrace · Jun 13, 2019

Lighting is perfectly fine, especially given that it's FOWLR. A nasty hitchhiker would've been my number 1 suspect but I agree with dry rock and being 2 years old it's highly unlikely. The Powder Blue and Blonde Naso would be the next culprits on my list.

Sorcha2 · Jun 13, 2019

There are some nasty bacterial infections that will kill fish very quickly. Clean up crews can clean up the remains with quite a bit of speed as well.

HawaiianReef · Jun 13, 2019

You mentioned you working on lowering your nitrates. Have you changed your feeding schedule/frequency?

Pbh-reef · Jun 13, 2019

Could it be internal parasites? I’m just trying to think of something that would kill slowly and that sometimes resists medication so could make it through QT.

Mini Coop · Jun 13, 2019

Jesterrace said:
Lighting is perfectly fine, especially given that it's FOWLR. A nasty hitchhiker would've been my number 1 suspect but I agree with dry rock and being 2 years old it's highly unlikely. The Powder Blue and Blonde Naso would be the next culprits on my list.

Ok - so, I don't WANT my tank to be FOWLR. Lol - I have tried corals -they just keep dying.
My Naso and powder blue have never been aggressive toward any other fish, ever. And I don't think they would have killed the bella goby - she was pretty big.

Mini Coop · Jun 13, 2019

Sorcha2 said:
There are some nasty bacterial infections that will kill fish very quickly. Clean up crews can clean up the remains with quite a bit of speed as well.

I haven't noticed any bacterial infections. No signs of anything. I had white poop in my clowns a while ago, but mixed meds (general cure) into their food for 3 months and haven't seen anything since then.