Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Hi. Has anyone ever heard of a pistol (paired with a watchman goby) eating other tank inhabitants? The pistol is over 2" long. Over the last week we lost a clown (body undamaged), flame angel (no carcass), coral beauty (no carcass), hawkfish (carcass found) and a fire fish (carcass found). We feed the tank every other day and have been dropping meaty bundles in front of his cave. We kept hearing clicking in the tank and because we didn't know if we had a mantis we took our tank apart today and dipped everything. Had a couple of questionable rocks so also put them in RO water. Found lots of starfish and pods but only 2 little pistol shrimp. No mantis. Nothing big enough to take down fish of that size. We quarantined the pistol outside of the tank to see if we still heard the clicking - so far nothing. Appreciate any advice...am guessing we will need to get rid of the pistol :-( Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Clicking is definitely the pistol, mine did it every night when it hunted. I know other shrimp species aren't safe with it but never had an issue with it killing fish. Even if yours did it wouldn't be able to eat a whole clown in one night. What other critters do you have in the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Very doubtful that its your pistol. I don't think they aren't really capable of taking down a fish unless it pretty small. I saw my pistol take out a really small goby one time but that's it. How are your water parameters? what are you using to check them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I have a Tiger Pistol in my 29 who is the second largest tank inhabitant. He is almost 3" long and over 1/2" wide. He clicks at night when he is fidgeting around, but has never mesed with any other tank inhabitants. He is housed with his buddy watchman goby (over 4"), a pair or false percs, small yellowtail damsel, fire shrimp, lots of hermits, sixline, and a tailspot blenny. How long has your tank been setup? That many fish dying/disspearing in such a short time span seems too much for any type of predator. I would look towards water quality/overstocking too fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 We have a 90 gallon tank with 5 emerald crabs, 2 skunk shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, hermits, snails, watchman goby, dottyback, yellow tail damsel, blenny, clown and a hippo tang. Oh and a nudibranc :-). We have checked ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, calcium, alkalinity and salinity. All have been within normal ranges - we have been checking them every 2-3 days. Tank has been setup for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Maybe one of your fish has gone evil on you? Dottybacks can be jerks, so can the clown. It might not happen in front of you because when the fish see you they are thinking about food, but when you leave the room its on. I have noticed this with my tank when I "spy" on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pailines Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 +1 o0zarkawater But i would also look into the feeding schedule, after ruling out water parm. With so little food around, it's plausible the fish went after the tiger's antenna, but got "stun" and became food them selves. Stunned fish = fair game to anything that is hungry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michae52 Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Just out of curiosity how are the other inverts doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 All the other shrimp and crabs seem great. Should we be feeding the tank more often? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 +1 o0zarkawater But i would also look into the feeding schedule, after ruling out water parm. With so little food around, it's plausible the fish went after the tiger's antenna, but got "stun" and became food them selves. Stunned fish = fair game to anything that is hungry. what is water parm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pailines Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 +1 o0zarkawater But i would also look into the feeding schedule, after ruling out water parm. With so little food around, it's plausible the fish went after the tiger's antenna, but got "stun" and became food them selves. Stunned fish = fair game to anything that is hungry. what is water parm? Sorry was too lazy to type out the whole thing, water parameter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 +1 o0zarkawater But i would also look into the feeding schedule, after ruling out water parm. With so little food around, it's plausible the fish went after the tiger's antenna, but got "stun" and became food them selves. Stunned fish = fair game to anything that is hungry. what is water parm? Sorry was too lazy to type out the whole thing, water parameter. Thanks. It's been a long week and a particularly long day. I should have figured that out!!!Do you think we aren't feeding enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pailines Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Thanks. It's been a long week and a particularly long day. I should have figured that out!!! Do you think we aren't feeding enough? It's okay, i feel your pain. I personally feed my 20long(no skimmer, 20%water change/week) one to twice a day, and sometimes even spot feed the tiger.(Just because he's REALLY stupid about what's food and what's not.) So i would believe that in a 90g, with so much livestock, it would require daily feeding atleast. p.s. here is one of the many short article that i follow for my feeding regemine. http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/fishprofilesindex/a/blqafeeding.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I guess I starve my tank then. I feed every 2-3 days with a mixture of a cube of mysis and a cube of emerald entree mixed with a little rotifer and cyclops, distributed between a 55gal, 29gal, and my little 2.5gal, or i'll feed just mixed pellets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pailines Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 :/ I take that +1 back (kidding) What kind of livestock do you keep in there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I guess I starve my tank then. I feed every 2-3 days with a mixture of a cube of mysis and a cube of emerald entree mixed with a little rotifer and cyclops, distributed between a 55gal, 29gal, and my little 2.5gal, or i'll feed just mixed pellets. Chris my fish would hate you lol, I feed at least twice a day....sometimes 3 times. I mix it up though with every feeding. Nori, formula 1 and 2 flakes, brine flakes, new life spectrum pellets, fozen mysid, emerald entree, marine cusine, and krill. Like I said I rotate these, I would never feed all these at once. I try to feed new life spectrum everyday, I'll usually throw them in before I feed anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 All my fish are fatties and my corals happy. Also don't currently have any algae problems, and only empty my skimmer cup every other week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Cindy and family, sorry to hear about your loss! It is worrisome when several fish die in a very short time. I would initially think some kind of pathogen (keep in mind some of these deaths can still be totally unrelated). Without any external signs there's no practical way to narrow down the cause and if in the case of a bacterial cause it's very risky treating a display tank with antibiotics and I would put more value on the ecosystem and other inahbitants than on the fish and just let it run it's course. With the fish you have I would expect the Hippo Tang and Dottyback to show signs of an external parasite before the angels that died. Ich is pretty easy, it looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt. Velvet can be a little more vague some fish may only show both eyes cloudy but if you look closely you should see a faint dusting like bapy powder on the fins and body. You've ruled out a water quality issue. Some more questions I have are the fish that died were they more recent additions than the ones that are doing well? Were any of them also added at the same time? How long were they in the tank before they died? (This tweeks my curiosity about stress and the incubation time of deseases but I see deaths at 2 days, roughly 2 weeks and roughly two months after adding to a tank or moving a tank.) Also what type of clowns? Most people get Perculas or Ocellarus which are better behaved but can still be mean but an established Maroon or Tomatoe can be a very mean fish. As far as feeding I would be feeding more frequently and the link Pralines posted would be a good guideline. Keep in mind it does take months for a fish to starve and a telltail indicator is the body will become pinched behind the skull where the fish has lost muscle tissue across it's back. In a fish with good body wieght irregardless of it's body shape the body outline across the face, forehead, skull and back should be a smooth profile. If the body starts to pinch behind the skull outlining it the fish is under wieght. In the case of an over weight fish the skull is outlined by a hump where the skull ends and the back starts. One of the problems with keeping heavily stocked tanks is maintaining good body wieght, invarably somebody eats more than thier share and somebody else doesn't get enough. Unless you find a definitive cause I would wait a long time, weeks or months before adding anything. The only preventive action I would take for your display tank is add a UV but if there are no clear signs of Ich or Velvet it may not be doing much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 +1 Timfish I had a lot of fish die within a week and had no idea what was happening until I saw the visible sign on my already dead lemon peel. It was a bacterial infection. I lost three fish before I saw the ulcer on my lemon peel. The bacterial infection spread and killed so fast that there were no visible symptoms until after I noticed the fish died (i.e. fish was okay night before, return home from work next day and fish is dead). There really was nothing I could do by this time. I had a chromis and zebra eel survive. BTW - I know why this all happened - I added a new fish without quarantining first. It was the second or third fish to die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy Allen Wolff Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Thanks for all the advice...we'll have to see how things go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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