Engineer Goby..The killer

Problem is that the fish completely disappear. On two of the occasions, i saw them dead under the rock with the eng. goby nipping at them. What else could it be? I never found three of the bodies...haha

 

Well, you said that you have hermits. They can make quick work of a dead chromis, could only take a few hours to be gone.
Have you actually seen the goby take out a healthy, 100% chromis? And you say this is happening in the middle of the night mostly? I am thinking maybe you have yourself a pistol shrimp in there somewhere maybe

 

my tank is only 20gallons. And there isnt too much live rock. I would think id have seen a pistol shrimp by now...
And yes, i have seen the goby on multiple occasions dart out of his tunnel at chromis and bash into their sides. He only does this when they approach close to his tunnel entrances and hang out there for a bit.

Other than that, he is peaceful when out of his tunnels.

Weird guy...

 

And to add, ive seen him attack my two nassarius snails when they decided to cruise by his dwelling.

 

Well, being territorial and preying on things are two completely different things. You would be suprised at how well shrimp can hide, too. I only have a 40 and added 3 peppermint shrimp once and never saw them again till I took the rockwork apart a month and a half later.
Heres what I would do. Pull a late night recon of the tank. Go lights out at night, and sit there for a few hours with your favorite beverage or whatever and watch the tank. If you dont have lunars use a flashlight with red cellophane wrapped over the end of it. Solve the mystery once and for all. Besides, you'll be suprised at the things in there that go bump in the dark that you never knew about

 

Ill have to check it out. Thanks packleader. Ill let you guys know what I find. I have a digital intermal memory camcorder with night vision ad i may just record it then watch it the next day. Thanks.

 

That would be cool. Specially if the chromis always sleep in the same spot!
Keep us updated

 

Engineer goby

I have a reef tank and started out with two clownfish, then I added a Vlamingi Tang. I then proceeded to add a Solar Fairy Wrasse and an engineer goby. My wrasse went into hiding (or so I thought) but this morning I found it dead at the bottom of the tank having its back chewed off. I really suspect the goby because the wrasse and goby were both hiding under the corals and live rock and I did, on one occasion, observe them both having a "face off." Buyer, beware!

 

There are plenty of reasons these are not listed as reef safe fish.

 

Are the chromis aggressive towards each other? Maybe they're doing the killing and the goby is just cleaning up the mess, so to speak.

Other than that thought, agree with above, watch when lights out and see what you can see.