Missing Clown

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KevinR

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Hi All

I went away this weekend and on my return one of my clowns is gone. I have no idea where he could be. I have a 4 foot tank with 5 green chromis and 2 clowns (one mia) 2 big hermit crabs, 5 small snails and 1 lawnmower blennie.

I am quite worried about the second clown. I cannot find it anywhere. I have moved most of the rock arround to try and find him and nothing.

Is it possible that it died and the hermit crabs got hold of him and left nothing. Not a single trace of him? I am worried that if he is dead in the tank somewhere that he might be poisoning the rest of the tank. I checked the amonia yesterday and it looked fine and then I did a 20l water change.

Is there anything else I should do? Move all the rocks till I find it or just wait and see what happens?
 
KevinR said:
Hi All

I went away this weekend and on my return one of my clowns is gone. I have no idea where he could be. I have a 4 foot tank with 5 green chromis and 2 clowns (one mia) 2 big hermit crabs, 5 small snails and 1 lawnmower blennie.

That should be ok

I am quite worried about the second clown. I cannot find it anywhere. I have moved most of the rock arround to try and find him and nothing.

Has he not gone into the overflow or down into the sump?

Is it possible that it died and the hermit crabs got hold of him and left nothing. Not a single trace of him? I am worried that if he is dead in the tank somewhere that he might be poisoning the rest of the tank. I checked the amonia yesterday and it looked fine and then I did a 20l water change.

Hermits would've cleaned up quickly.

Is there anything else I should do? Move all the rocks till I find it or just wait and see what happens?
Click to expand...

No use moving anymore rock, he would've popped out by now.

Sorry, but it does sound like he is dead, did they show any sign of illness?
 
That's strange. I had a Midas Blenny disappear on me. I could only assume that it died and the remains eaten by my hermits and shrimps. Moving all the LR and coral around is really difficult. Chances are if it died, it's already been eaten by your hermits and any other little critters in the tank.

I'm sure you've done this, but check your overflow for any sign of the clown. I've seen clowns on the other side of corner overflows when the water level gets too high. Also check all powerheads. Anything dead and floating tends to get stuck in them.

With any luck he might just appear again. I've had that to. My lawnmower blenny gave me a fright one time and disappeared only to reappear a couple of days later, parked on a piece of coral like nothing happend.
 
Thanks for the quick response lIghty. I did check the sump and he is not there. He there is a grate/grid thing between the tank and the overflow so the only way he could be in there is if he jumped over that grate. It did cross my mind that he might still be in the plumbing or something but I am not sure.

The fish did not show any sign of illness at all. They where all eating like pigs. The rest of them still are. My clown seems to be opening and closing its mouth alot at the moment and that is what worries me that he might still be in the tank and poisining it. If the hermits did clean up then they sure did do a good job because there is no trace of him at all.
 
How many hermits do you have ?

Smaller fish in my tank are eaten over night, with no trace left.

But I have in the region of 50 hermits
 
I only have 2 hermits but they are quit large ones. I left on friday at midday and was back at 1 on sunday so they had a bit of time if it died say on friday night.

Silly question but would a hermit catch a live fish and eat it?
 
Thanks for the replys. I think I am going to put it down to the hermits and just keep an eye on the tank for a few days. Maybe do a water change again tonight.
 
May sound like a stupid question, but do have any anemone or likewise invert that might have eaten it? Or have you any suspicion of a mantis shrimp? Just a thought.
 
I have no suspition on a mantis shrimp. I do see some shells of shrimps floting in the water every now and then but they are tiny and the clown would be about 10 times bigger. No suspision of anything else. Other than the fish I have a few mushrooms I think that came on the live rock. Other than that it is a fowlr.
 
Those little shells floating around is just shrimps throwing off skin when they grow larger, no worries there. My guess is one of two, either a mantis / pistol shrimp or even a bobbit worm (yet you say you don't think so) or your clown died naturally, and got consumed by your cuc.

Just monitor your NH4 levels and NO3 levels. If nothing shows, you have no problem :thumbup: (other than the unfortuante loss of livestock - sorry...)
 
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