Help please, I got home this afternoon and my frogfishes hand is now gone!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!

He was breathing heavy this morning so I stopped the melafix treatment and did a 25% water change and added a bubbler to the tank. When out for a bit and when I got home I notice he has a stump where is hand on his arm used to be :evil: He's still breathing heavy and now I don't know what to think about what could of happened to his hand or what I should do about it :sad:

This is the oddest thing I have ever heard of. I hope he is ok :neutral:

Can you remove him to a quarantine tank? It sure sounds like there is something in there like a mantis shrimp maybe? Since frog fish usually perch themselves somewhere they are easy targets. I hope the poor guy pulls through.:sad:

What????????????? This is just too strange! If it wasn't a little nano tank I'd suspect a large crab. Too weird! I hope the little guy will be ok.

just a thought .. have you tried setting up a vid cam to record the tank and watch to see whats happening or try and catch things that you dont see it may be a pain but it may catch the culprit

Ya it's really strange I just don't get it. I like the video camera idea but I only have a very old video camera and I don't even know if it works, or if I have a tape for it etc.

I have heard poping sounds in the tank but I think it might be a candycane pistol shrimp not a mantis, however I've never seen it so I can't be sure, but my friend (who I got the rock from) had a pistol shrmip go missing, so likely it's that.

One friend of mine siad he owned lionfish that have bit other fish, so maybe it is the lion. The only thing that makes me think it's not is that the wounds don't look like bite marks and (whenever I've watched the tank) the lionfish hasn't showed any aggression towards the frogfish. It does seem more like something a big crab would do however I've moved the rock in and out of the tank and it's not that big so I think I'd notice a large crab. I do have a very small crab in there but it's about the size of my pinky finger nail so I don't think it's that.

I've been going through several scenario's of moving fish around but I don't know if it would help or not, so I'm not sure what to do.

i wish i could be of more help .. you can always ask a friend to lend a vid camera too. if you can find a small tank that you can quickly plumb into the system with pumps and separate the frogfish from the tank it may help untill you find the culprit.. i know its a pain if i was closer i have 3 10g tanks sitting around :( i feel bad for the poor guy

Thanks, unfortunately there's no need for help or to feel bad now. I just got home from my friend's birthday party and I found the frogfish dead :cry:

I had been debating on moving him to my sump in my large tank system, but I didn't want to stress him out more by moving him. Also I have a mantis in that sump and I didn't want to risk it hurting the frog. However the mantis rarely ever comes out of his hole in his rock, so it might of been ok...guess I'll never know now :sad:

OH NO, so very sad for you. Wonder what the heck happened...very strange indeed!

Ya it was so bizarre. He was eating and doing good then his tail falls? off/goes missing. Treated with melafix and he seemed to be doing good and his tail started to grow back. Then this morning he's breathing hard, then his hand goes missing, then I find him dead! I still have no idea what happend to his tail or hand, I'm guessing the hard breathing was from the melafix (which is why I did a water change and added a bubbler) but however, in the end, all I know is that the whole thing doesn't make sense.