What is going on in my tank!!!!

[JosephM]

Skinny eating fish sometimes make it and sometimes they do not. It is definitely risky. Sometimes it is internal parasites and they will keep eating until the end.

There have been multiple deaths but I suspect the two fish deaths are not related. The shrimp goby looks intact and probably died gave into malnourishment.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was also a crab or such lurking as well. The little one you found does not look like it was going to grow up into a nice one. You can catch the crabs by putting some fish food in a glass or such and leaning it up against the rock or such.

Yeah I’m leaning towards malnourishment too on the Dracula, I see no other cause of death. Just so sudden. I didn’t see him all day today so maybe he was slowly dying I’ve set traps in my tank on multiple occasions and never caught anything except those cirlonoid isopods I was fighting.

he said he found the crab dead though, i still suspect either it was really complete molt he found or there is another crab in there. They are hard to find unless you flip every rock though

Was definitely a dead crab lol. I basically have flipped every rock. When I was trying to catch a different pistol shrimp (bullseye) a few weeks back I had to take all the rocks out and inspected them all. Even this crab was hard to find. I’ve only seen it’s legs a handful of times and only saw it’s whole body when I was trying to bait the pistol shrimp but it scurried back into the rock when I tried catching it

 

[JosephM]

A couple things that I have observed is that two of my zoas frags are on the ground (one was glued the other wasn’t) and another one or my zoa frags is completely missing. Meaning the plug is glued to the rock but the zoas were stolen off the plug! Im baffled

 

[JCM]

A couple things that I have observed is that two of my zoas frags are on the ground (one was glued the other wasn’t) and another one or my zoa frags is completely missing. Meaning the plug is glued to the rock but the zoas were stolen off the plug! Im baffled

Sure sounds like a crab you've not seen. That's where my attention would be focused.

 

[MarkyMark_]

A couple things that I have observed is that two of my zoas frags are on the ground (one was glued the other wasn’t) and another one or my zoa frags is completely missing. Meaning the plug is glued to the rock but the zoas were stolen off the plug! Im baffled

Your tank has been visited by the reef gremlin

 

[JosephM]

Sure sounds like a crab you've not seen. That's where my attention would be focused.

Do bottle traps work for them? What’s the best method to catch a crab?

Your tank has been visited by the reef gremlin

Sure seems like it:mad:. At least my corals are good! I don’t know how long it’ll be until I add a new fish. I’m only 17 working part time and losing 2 $100+ fish in less then a month hurts me financially and emotionally lol

 

[MarkyMark_]

Do bottle traps work for them? What’s the best method to catch a crab?

Sure seems like it:mad:. At least my corals are good! I don’t know how long it’ll be until I add a new fish. I’m only 17 working part time and losing 2 $100+ fish in less then a month hurts me financially and emotionally lol

In all seriousness, I hope this can be figured out and get you back on the right track

 

[JCM]

Do bottle traps work for them? What’s the best method to catch a crab?

Sure seems like it:mad:. At least my corals are good! I don’t know how long it’ll be until I add a new fish. I’m only 17 working part time and losing 2 $100+ fish in less then a month hurts me financially and emotionally lol

Maybe. Remove the livestock and starve the tank for a week if you can. That will make it more likely to come searching for food.

 

[JosephM]

In all seriousness, I hope this can be figured out and get you back on the right track

Me too. I knew the hobby would be a chore when I got into but not like this. I have quite a bit of corals that are on the sand ready to be moved up. I’ll work on that tomorrow and get some traps set up for the next few nights. I just can’t set any traps because I don’t have any useable ground area atm

 

[JosephM]

Maybe. Remove the livestock and starve the tank for a week if you can. That will make it more likely to come searching for food.

I can’t do that. Too many corals and no other tank other then my brothers and he doesn’t take care of it. I’ll just trap every night for a while. If nothing shows up I’ll take a break from fish and just work on learning more and grow my coral collection as long as nothing else disappears.

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

A whole freaking mystery over here omg homicide detectives like what in the CSI is going on omg it’s so sad but intriguing man all the best to those traps

 

[JosephM]

A whole freaking mystery over here omg homicide detectives like what in the CSI is going on omg it’s so sad but intriguing man all the best to those traps

It is. It’s gonna be crazy if I ever find out whatever is causing this mess.

 

[Vested]

It is. It’s gonna be crazy if I ever find out whatever is causing this mess.

Seriously super interesting to follow along, hoping the best for the rest of your fish and tank. I have a good feeling about the traps! Keep us updated

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

From my own knowledge that is a gorilla crab, and will definitely cause some problems. My first course of action is getting rid of him, and making sure you don’t have more than one. Clown fish are damsels they are not nice fish. My own clown has bitten me, and it hurts. I have still promised that if he ever bites me again, he will be served on toast to some neighbors cat.
This hobby can get expensive fast, and prices are not cheap. Don’t buy super expensive fish or corals just yet. Try some basic ones first and if they make it great it’s a good stepping stone. But If not your not out so much money and frustrated.

 

[JosephM]

Hello,

From my own knowledge that is a gorilla crab, and will definitely cause some problems. My first course of action is getting rid of him, and making sure you don’t have more than one. Clown fish are damsels they are not nice fish. My own clown has bitten me, and it hurts. I have still promised that if he ever bites me again, he will be served on toast to some neighbors cat.
This hobby can get expensive fast, and prices are not cheap. Don’t buy super expensive fish or corals just yet. Try some basic ones first and if they make it great it’s a good stepping stone. But If not your not out so much money and frustrated.

The crab was dead when I got home, he’s out of the tank. My clownfish are sweethearts so far, I know that can change. I have a ton of corals all doing good and healthy. This was just some freak accident. I’ll be trapping to try and catch whatever is doing all of this. Thank you

 

[zukihara]

 

[dedragon]

hmm i wonder if you could use interceptor to kill any errant crustaceans as long as you remove your shrimp first. Anyone have experience?

 

[hds4216]

hmm i wonder if you could use interceptor to kill any errant crustaceans as long as you remove your shrimp first. Anyone have experience?

It will kill crustaceans. This would be effective, but it also will decimate pods and beneficial crustaceans.

 

[JosephM]

It will kill crustaceans. This would be effective, but it also will decimate pods and beneficial crustaceans.

Yeah I definitely wouldn’t want to do that. For all we know it’s a parasite or a bunch of coincidences.

 

[dedragon]

seems like a newer tank, so if you see anymore fish with cuts in em its always an option and just add a bag of pods back after treatment. I agree I would only do this if I was sure another pest was in there

 

[JosephM]

seems like a newer tank, so if you see anymore fish with cuts in em its always an option and just add a bag of pods back after treatment. I agree I would only do this if I was sure another pest was in there

Yeah very true. I’ll keep an eye out for any more funky stuff going on. I am culturing pods so it wouldn’t be a big deal if I killed off my pods