Who's the culprit

m_lacom99 · 03-22-2005, 07:17 AM

Hey all. I came home last night and i saw that my clown fish (ocellaris) was in very bad shape. Something had chewed on it for a while. he has practically no more dorsal fin, and the rest of them are all shredded. Now he is the only fish in the tank, so heres my list of culprits; black brittle star, emerald crab about 1" big and a cleaner shrimp. Now i know most of you will say the star or the crab but im doubting this. My cleaner shrimp eats snails and meat and is always trying to pick at everything... the only thing its scared of is the brittle star. Yesterday he was trying to get to the clown but i dont know if it was to eat him more of to clean him since he was so wounded.

So what do you guys think?
Thanks

Marc.

alarsuel · 03-22-2005, 10:41 AM

It's possible that you are missing something in your list of creatures. I have often had very dangerous things in my live rock (mantis shrimp). In fact one actually eat an entire medium sized blue tang. Anyway, if you don't see any problem during the day, then my guess is that it is something like a mantis shrimp at night. The only real way to check it out is with a flashlight at night. You will see all kinds of things that you didn't know were there. If you do have something that needs out, you can set a trap for it, but it is somewhat challenging. If you do need to trap something I'd imagine that there are threads here describing how to do it. If you can't find one, let me know and I'll explain how to do it.

Good Luck,

Aaron

m_lacom99 · 03-22-2005, 11:04 AM

alarsuel... i know i dont have anything else like a mantis in my tank. Most of my live rock in the tank started out as base rock and the rest of the LR i got peice by peice so i know there clean. I am sure its one of those 3.

I just went to my LFS durring my lunch break and he told me that male cleaner shrimp can become agresive without the presence of a female after a long time. And i would say that mine is cause it ate all of my stomella snails and tries to pick at my big turbos once in a while.

Marc.

RAVEN · 03-22-2005, 11:18 AM

My votes on the star fish! Brittle Star's are known to eat fish when they get big. A friend of mine has or should I say had a brittle star until all her fish started disappearing!

Jay · 03-23-2005, 05:28 AM

I have has my Brittle Stars eat snails, Crabs and even a 2.5 inch green shrimp. If the brittles get a hold of a fish they will usually win. Its catching the fish that is hard for them. Once in their grasp its bye bye fishy fishy.

I feed my starfish krill twice a week just to keep them from trying to eat my livestock. I have found that if you keep them well fed crabs snails and fish are safe even walking/swimming over the starfish.

2 green brittles
1 serpent star
1 Orange Lynkia

chetrod · 03-23-2005, 05:50 AM

I had a crab in my tank that ate three of my fish in one week he was about the size of yours. When it was smaller pellet shrimp was fine but as they get bigger so does the appetite.

m_lacom99 · 03-23-2005, 07:04 AM

I feed my brittle star every 2 - 3 days with a chunk of raw shrimp. And my crab is only interrested in the green stuff for now. But I may be wrong, never know... What do you guys think about my LFS guy's theory on the agresive cleaner shrimp in my last post?

Marc.

Bruce · 03-23-2005, 05:00 PM

also, i have never seen a cleaner shrimp go and ate a fish...has anyone else? this is mostly cuz a fish would kick their little exoskeletom butt lol

m_lacom99 · 03-24-2005, 06:43 AM

I just dont know guys.... I got home last night and he was even worst. That "someone" ate him some more. I will seperate him tonight and stick him in my girlfreinds 20gal wich is about done cycling.

Marc.