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Thread: Something is attacking our fish :(

  1. #1

    Default Something is attacking our fish :(

    We had another viscious attack sometime Friday night or Saturday morning. This time to Kristy's female mandarin that we have had for close to three years. Almost all of her fins are gone- top fin, tail, and side fins. We moved her to the small tank, but as you can imagine she is not doing too well.

    So far this has happened to another smaller male mandarin (over two years ago) and to a lantern basslet. The lantern was jumped twice, once (~9 months ago) left him with part of his tail and most of one fin missing, then a second (myabe 3 months ago) more of his tail and other fin were gone. He not too long after the second attack dissapeared for good with no trace. All the vi tims are small, slow fish that sleep on the sandbed.

    These attacks have happened over a fairly long period of time. The problem is with the new female mandarin's attack, we no longer have some of the popular suspects from the previous attacks. We used to have a coral banded shrimp who is gone and we had a big pistol shrimp, who I am 95% sure is now gone (no pops and gone from visible tunnels underneath).

    So left in our tank as suspects are 2 good sized red serpent/brittle starfish we were told were fish safe. We did not have them in the tank when the male mandarin was attacked.

    We do have a few small, with one getting to be medium hermit crabs. I don't see how they could hold a fish down to trim off all the fins.

    We do not think we have any fish who might be suspect- 4 tangs, bunch of anthias, a butterfly, couple of reef safe wrasses, couple of dwarf angels. Among the more aggressive biters in the tank are the maroon clown pair, flame tail blenny, 3+ year old damsel and 3+ year old bi-color blenny.

    Sorry for the long rambling post- any thoughts on possible cuprit?
    http://www.millan.net/minimations/sm...riumsmile1.gif - Mike and Kristy -


    "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Brody (Jaws)



  2. #2
    Join Date
    05-23-2009
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    LaVernia, Texas
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    Default

    perhaps rather than a critter trying to eat the fish it could be someone defending their territory? Any sandbed dwelling gobies or blennies maybe?
    I really like some products by Seachem. One is Stressguard and one is Paraguard. In the little mandarin's case teh stressguard may help her with her fins
    Good luck!
    Karin



  3. #3
    Join Date
    08-28-2007
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    Stone Oak PKWY, SA/TX
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    Put a red light on your head and do some late night adventuring. I'd wait a couple hours after lights are out and make sure that all the lights in the room are off and sit around to see what you find. This happened to me when I first got into the hobby and I found a large hairy crab. Watching the tank with a red light was creepy...reminded me of snorkeling my favorite surf spots. You are better off not knowing what's there...lol!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    02-12-2004
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    Far West SA 1604 and Culebra
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    Sounds to me like the culprit is attacking at night when the lights go out. I strongly doubt its a fish because when the lights go out every fish ive ever known slows down and "sleeps" no matter how aggressive they may be. Id suspect a invert of some sort which are more active during the night. From the damage you describe something jumps on the fish while not moving to cause that kind of damage.

    Good luck on your investigation, time to brake out the flashlights!
    Ray Allen
    San Antonio, TX
    1604 Culebra/Shanefield
    rba0284@gmail.com
    40g Breeder Reef Aquarium

  5. #5
    Join Date
    02-12-2004
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    Rob you and I are on the same page. Doesn't sound like a fish at all.
    Ray Allen
    San Antonio, TX
    1604 Culebra/Shanefield
    rba0284@gmail.com
    40g Breeder Reef Aquarium

  6. #6
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  7. #7

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    Well, she did not make it. I am beyond sad... she has been with us a long time, ate frozen, and had really fattened up to a healthy size. So frustrating!

    For comparison, I went back and found the thread when we lost our tiny male mandarin to this same thing...
    http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?...light=mandarin
    http://www.millan.net/minimations/sm...riumsmile1.gif - Kristy and Mike -

    210 g reef tank started 3/15/08; 20 g hex reef tank started 1/3/08, ended 3/30/14

    "I must be a mermaid.... I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living." - Anais Nin
    "To travel is to take a journey into yourself." - Danny Kaye

  8. #8
    Join Date
    05-23-2009
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    sorry Kristy :(

    Since the attacks happen only every 3 months or so I'd be loosing motivation for night watching after a few days but maybe you're more patient.
    Karin



  9. #9
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    maybe it takes 2-3 months for the culprit to catch something. Doesn't mean it's not out every night though.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    07-21-2005
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    Some of those big serpent stars have been known to grab thing occasionally... That's what I'd suspect.
    Bill

    215g FOWLR... and anemones, GSP, gorgonians... carp, that isn't FO!

    "I killed my first SW Fish in 1971..."

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