The Chromis Bermuda Triangle

[Anonymous]

I bought a nice little school of Chromis a few months ago. QTd all four of them together for a month and change. Then popped them in my tank. They all did fine for a week, then one was gone. No corpse, not in the filter or on the foor around the tank. Not in the sump. Then I lost one every other week until I lost the last one yesterday. Never found a corpse or any sign of any of them. Not even a chunk of meat being feasted on by the hermits.

Granted, in a 75 gallon tank with 100 pounds of LR it is bound to be tough to find a small dead fish, but I have had a fish die and found the corpse the next day. In my experience, the hermits don't even go after a corpse until it has been dead for a while and I don't have enough of them to finish a corpse off over night in the first place.

Water perameters are all perfect. Temp 77, pH 8.3, zero ammonia, zero trites and zero trates. I don't have any predators either and the only fish that could kill another fish is my yellow tang. He's very friendly to all ther other fish in the tank, so I can't see him murdering a school of chromis one by one.

They didn't seem sick before vanishing either. They always ate well and were plump. The last one to go had grown quite a bit since I got him too.


Anyone had this problem with chromis before. I ask because a similar experience was shared by a friend of mine who lost three chromis one by one over the course of a few weeks and never found the corpses. Are they prone to jumping? Will I find little fish skeletons behind the stand when I move it one day?

 

[Anonymous]

I have had the same thing happen. Then seem to be funny that way.

 

[SnowManSnow]

Haven't you ever seen Finding Nemo, at the end..where all the aquarium fish make a break for it and escape???

 

[Anonymous]

Prolly not... but maybe a mantis?

~wings~

 

[fishinsouthga]

never lost one of them but i can't find about 8 gobys for the life of me, and i tore my display apart thinking they got stuck, i was pissed

 

[pbyrmartin]

Last year a bought about 9 of them
They were all doing fine.
Then one by one they seems to disappear.
Until they all disappeared
No dead bodies in the tank
They didn’t look sick either.
My brittle star fish did look kind of fat though. But did not have any evidence to support that theory.
Up to this day I still don’t know what happen to them.
I wish someone could figure it out.

Also it seems that the way they capture some of the green chromos, its not the best way because they later die in your tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I bought 7 a year and a half ago, and I still have 7.

I think Manny something is nabbing them in their sleep. The fact that you cannot find a corpse supports this.

 

[Blazin__]

Another way of lookin at this situation is.... keep feeding whatever is eating your chromis.... eaventualy it will get bigger and easier to find, i had strange things happening in my tank a while back and it turned out to be a huge rock crab

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I have a crab right now that came in on a piece of Acropora. He was tiny and could fit in a dime with room to spare. Now (although I rarely see him) he's about 3" across - I suppose I should attempt to catch him and send him to the sump sometime soon.

 

[lobo42a]

Do you by chance have a green brittle star in your tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Prolly not... but maybe a mantis?

~wings~

I thought about it being a mantis, but I haven't added anything new to the tank (no rocks no corals) in two years. And all of my other fish are fine.

I have this one hitchiker crab that has been in there for a while growing slowly, but he still isn't much bigger than a quarter and I would see him munching a fish that was bigger than him. Each time I lost a chromis, I located the crab and he would just be peacefully eating algae from the rocks.

 

[Anonymous]

Last year a bought about 9 of them
They were all doing fine.
Then one by one they seems to disappear.
Until they all disappeared
No dead bodies in the tank
They didn’t look sick either.
My brittle star fish did look kind of fat though. But did not have any evidence to support that theory.
Up to this day I still don’t know what happen to them.
I wish someone could figure it out.

Also it seems that the way they capture some of the green chromos, its not the best way because they later die in your tank.

So we are not alone. I don't have any brittle or serpent stars. And the mantis theory is out because of how long my tank has been without addition of rock or coral....or sand or anything but these chromis. First addition in a very very long time.

 

[Anonymous]

Is your tank covered? Do you have cats?

 

[Anonymous]

Is your tank covered? Do you have cats?

Yeah, it's covered. I do have cats, but they're pretty picky about what they eat and they generally don't have access to the living room, which is where the tank is.

I thought about a jumper being eaten by a cat, but this last time the cats hadn't been in the room in days and I didn't find the fish anywhere. Maybe the dog is getting them.

 

[ricky1414]

Are you positive you bought the Chromis, and aren't just imagining it all??? :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Are you positive you bought the Chromis, and aren't just imagining it all??? :wink:

having read all of manny's posts here since he joined, I think that is a distinct possibility :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

You guys crack me up. :roll:


...What were we talking about? :lol:

 

[ricky1414]

...What were we talking about? :lol:

Huh??