fish mysteriously dying

[Big_Pun]

:at_wits_end:The past 2 weeks ive been loosing fish, first one was my flame tail found it with torn up fins stressed and ended up dead, then my twin spot, was fine went to the back of rock pile then found it in the front breathing hard an hour later and a red dot or piece of something coming out his poop hole, now my new purple fire fish went missing saw him in usual spot then gone. the first time i took apart the tank and didnt see anything. latley ive been seeing alot of large bristle worms about 2-4 inches moving around all day, would these attack fish, the ones that keep dieing are the fish that frequent the back of the tank, my clown fish is healthy but always stays up front. any ideas ???

[reddrum]

What other livestock is in the tank? Including crabs etc.

[msmith619]

Meet Barry, the 4 foot bristle worm: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...oral-reef.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...oral-reef.html)
Some bristle woms can grow large enough to munch your fisk. Also, check for crabs, mantis shrimp, some serpent stars, etc will only come out at night and attack your sleeping fish. You will need to stay up and use a red light to see them (red light will not cause them to back into hiding).
Mike

[Big_Pun]

What other livestock is in the tank? Including crabs etc.
livestock

- blue neon hermit (1)
- turbos (4)
- Super Tongan Nassarius Snail (5)
- clown fish (1)
- britle stars small what ive seen (?)

[ballardjr2000]

another way to check for a mantic shrimp at night is to listen for a loud thump sound since they can slam into the rock or tank walls hard enough to crack tanks i have heard. and during a dive i have seen them crack a divers mask.

[reddrum]

Does your clown show any aggression at all during the day? I wouldn't be surprised if she was beating up those fish. They can get pretty mean.

[Big_Pun]

maybe, the clown has been by itself besides the flame tail, which never interacted with it, good news the purplefire fish showed up this morn.