whats eating my fish

[dan the moose]

alright, i have an issue, i have a 20 long reef tank, my parameters are great, my nitrate spikes slightly past 20 at the end of the week, right before it gets a water change. there are 4 fish in the tank, a "pair" of clowns, which will be the topic of my next question, and a yashia goby, and a royal gramma, which are the problem at hand. ive had the royal gramma for 3 nights, and his tail has dissapeared a bit, the first morning he was out, there was a small chink missing, and today, there is about 2 rays left on the whole tail. the yashia goby, when i bought him, was missing a bit of his first ray on the dorsal (the long one) half of it grew back, but today it was back down to a stub. as for inverts, i have

-blue legged pistol shrimp (used to be bonded with yashia, not so much any more)
- 5 blue legged hermits
- 5 nassarius, and astreia snails, and 2 turbo snails

there is also an acro crab that i have, he came off a paice of acro that died, i used to see him every few days, but have not seen him at all for about 5 weeks.

and there was a porcelin crab, but again, i have not seen him in 3 months or so.

there are no anemonies, mostly lps coral, (hammer, brain, etc)

what could be doing this? could it be the pistol shrimp, and if so, how do i remove him, i have been trying to the past few nights with a bootle trap, but it hasnt worked so far.


now, the second half of the question is, the pair of clowns i have, and i know for sure they are a pair, have been kicking the snot out of each other, well, the female has been kicking the male, and all he is doing is that shaking/showing thing that i have read is suppose to be a courting thing. last night, she bit is pectoral fin, and swam around with him in her mouth, IS THIS NORMAL????

thanks for your time.

 

[craig]

I think the shrimp is the one beating up your small fosh. Whats the difference in size between the clowns? Or are they the same size?

 

[Mattcomptonassvanhorn]

Yeah that is weird. There could be something in the tank you cant see.

 

[Scuba Kid]

Could have a mantis shrimp....its not that uncommon for them to come in as liverock hitchhikers.

 

[dan the moose]

well, ive kinda rulled out mantis, only cuz my fish are still alive! they are just a little shreaded, i know the gramma sleeps at night, in a cuccoon like thing, and am guessing thats when hes getting mangled, and belive that the yashia is just an easy target if it is the pistol, cuz the yashia might be trying to bond witht he shrimp. the clowns arent that much different in size, the male is only about 3/4 the size of the female. they are definetly a pair, the way they came into the store, the way they acted in the store, and the way they went into my tank, 100% they were a pair. although the fighting only seems to happen before lights out, and after i feed!

 

[Ranzan]

dont rule out mantis lol those are nasty little bastards at night sit by your tank for a little while if you hear any clicking or tapping you most likely have mantis.. Mantis dont always kill your fish and there very sneaky i know someon that had one in his tank for 6 months and he didnt know it till he saw it one day while cleaning.

 

[dan the moose]

well, there was always clicking, which has stopped now that the pistol shrimp is out. but ill still keep an eye out for them. that would be the coolest thing that came out of the live rock, lol, at least in my tank. i wouldnt feel so bad if thats the reason my fish are getting mangled.

 

[chrisdef15]

Sure its not ya clowns? They can be mean little sobs.

 

[dan the moose]

i thought it might be, but they really dont seem to even care about the other fish in the tank when im in the room, or looking at the tank at least. ive seen both the yashia and the gramma bump right into the clowns, and they just react like, well they dont react, just kinda act like nothing happened at all. the gramma's tail is getting better, but the yashia is hiding a lot more now, i think they might be fighting each other!