who killed my 3 fish?! could use some advice :)

[ahmer1781]

Long story, but I really need your opinion on what happened.

I have a 90 gallon setup with 30 galllon sump, running about 3 months now, ~90 lbs of live rock.

My tank consists of:

Yellow Watchman Goby paired with Pistol Shrimp
Foxface (maybe 3")
4 baby clowns (largest is barely 1") they host in a GBTA
Six line wrasse (maybe 1.5")
20 hermits, 20 snails, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp and 2 emerald crabs

Ammonia -- 0
Nitrites -- 0
Nitrates -- <5
Temp -- 77

I added:
2 Bangai Cardinals
2 Red Firefish

The first day, everyone was hiding. The next day all 4 fish were eating and doing okay. The Bangai Cardinals split up, 1 was in the middle rock area, the other 1 in the corner near the clowns. The one near the clowns stopped eating. 3 days later, that cardinal died and I found my clean up crew eating him.

The 2 firefish were eating great, coming out a lot, and at night time would hide in a rock. The rock happened to be the same rock that the Goby and Shrimp would live in. About a week later 1 firefish went missing. I looked everywhere to see if he jumped, didn't see him anywhere. 10 days after that, my last firefish was hiding in the day time and not eating. The next day I saw my crew eating him up.

What happened!? I did read that the Bangai Cardinals and the Firefish, if I got 2 of the same sex, would kill each other. So that would mean I'd be left with 1 firefish and 1 cardinal. In this case, I am left with no firefish, so who took him out?

I think it's the pistol shrimp or the ocellaris clown. The female is so much smaller than both Cardinals and Firefish, I just didn't see any behavior like that.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Ahmer Khan

[tallball158]

Hummm, 4 clowns in one tank? They can be quite aggressive, and some gobies can be territorial. Those clowns are going to be a problem, if they are not now. If I were you I would try to find a home for two of them. Also I did not hear you talk about QT. Did they go through it, or straight in the tank?

[ahmer1781]

they're baby clowns, I got them as my first fish, they were barely 0.5" when I got them, now I see a female (about 1") and a male (0.75") and the other look like they're going to stay without a sex (0.5"). I was advised that if I ever wanted to keep multiple clowns, they had to be from the same clutch and raised together. The clowns seem to be content.

They went from the LFS to a bucket for drip acclimation, then straight into the tank.

[gone fishin]

Tough call to make a sixline can be pretty nasty. More than a pair of clowns can get pretty nasty. Unless the firefish were a mated pair then you would have only one.

Without QT then the fish could have been infected with something and as a result infect the rest of the livestock.

[FTDelta]

Whoever told you keeping multiple clowns from the same clutch has already gave you bad advice. In reality, once a single dominant pair of clownfish is established, the other 2 clownfish will end up being killed off.

Drip acclimation will solve your problems. I strongly suggest you set up a QT tank. It doesn't have to be extravagant. A simple 10g tank with heater, lighting, filter and a PVC pipe for hiding will suffice.

[jerpa]

Wild caught bangaii tend to quit eating and die pretty often. Another reason to get tank bred if at all possible. Without a proper QT it is hard to rule anything out.

[bnumair]

i agree its hard to tell. it could be parasite due to no QT or clowns can be territorial and so can be wrasse. a little chasing around can put a new fish in stress making it hide so can parasite. 1 missing fish can be in overflow or maybe made it to sump or out of the tank.
there are too many factors.

[Teage29]

Emerald crabs might kill smaller fish like the dart fish. Mine killed my smaller goby.

[Joe0813]

those 4 clowns are going to fight until there is only two left

[Tuton]

It sounds to me almost like marine velvet....
pay close attention to the other fish to see if they show any symptoms