Killer in my tank?

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

Hi I have had a purple lobster, three clown fish, a butterfly fish and a small clean up crew of hermit crabs and snails in my tank and for a long time they were fine but recently with in the past 3-4 months my fish have begun to disappear no body no bones no ammonia spike they just vanish first with one clown then the next and then the butterfly fish but when I got home I was able to see the butterfly fish eyes gone gills gone and the tail gone in chunks like it was bitten off it wasn't dead for long but now I'm down to a clown fish and a purple lobster my parameters are in check my ammonia is at 0 my salinity is at 1.026 and my nitrate and nitrite are at 0 I have no idea what is going on I don't have an ro/di system so I use distilled water but I'm very worried that I have a killer in my tank please help

Eckolancer · Jan 20, 2016

That lobster is killing things. I had one once that did the same thing in my tank. If not him you might have a mantis shrimp or possibly a medusa worm. But my guess is the lobster.

thenissantech · Jan 20, 2016

It could be the lobster, did you get "live rock" when you first set up your tank? There could be a mantis shrimp in your tank if you did. I would try to look at your tank at night with a flash light and see if there is anything else in there. I bet it's your purple lobster though. Check out this discussion http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1766399

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

Yeah I did get live rock and okay cool thanks y'all for the info

Blue Lip · Jan 20, 2016

Lobster can eat fish.

evolved · Jan 20, 2016

direfishking27 said:
I have had a purple lobster

Bingo...

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

So is there anything I can do to stop himself is the options him or the fish

human · Jan 20, 2016

direfishking27 said:
So is there anything I can do to stop himself is the options him or the fish

Pretty much him or the fish, the lobster will hunt your fish down at night when they sleep.

drstratton · Jan 20, 2016

Do you have a refugium?

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

No I do not no room

drstratton · Jan 20, 2016

That's to bad! My son's been trying to talk me into putting one in my sump.

LaurensNL · Jan 20, 2016

When I was younger I had a freshwater tank with a albino lobster together with angelfish and other little bit bigger fishes. And never I had problems until my angelfish got eggs and pushed the other fishes in the corners. Because of the fish were hiding for for the angelfish they weren't aware of the lobster. And when my lobster saw his chance he strikes and killed them. I think this behavior is the same for saltwater lobsters.

WetWhistle · Jan 20, 2016

I find if you manually feed lobsters heavy like every few day it cuts down on stuff like this. But even a heavy feed one can still snack on things you don't want from time to time. I myself don't trust them unless I have them in a species tank set up to show them off. Where i control what goes in with them.

direfishking27 · Jan 20, 2016

I know [emoji17] but I currently have my snake under my tank lol and yeah that sounds like my lobster stay in all day and when I wake up in the morning there gone I'm gonna give him to a friend of mine that teaches marine biology so she can show him off to her class