Help Me Catch The Thief!
 

ok so one of my fish is being sneaky and picking up large frags and hiding them somewhere......

i bought a purple haze montipora frag yesterday. about 1.5 inches encrusted to a small rock, i wedged it into my live rock and made sure it was secure.

looks like one of my fish moved it and hid it somewhere. its nowhere to be found and its definatly to heavy to be blown away by the current. (its not like it fell off the rock into the sand, its literally gone and somewhere in the rockwork)

anyone know which one of my fish it could be?
I have:

about 6-7" regal tang
two 4" yellow tangs
5" foxface
two 1.5" clarkii clowns
2" coral beauty
2" cleaner wrasse
4" fairy wrasse
2" mandarin goby

What's your definition of secure? Apparently it was not.


Go to AI or BlueWorld and getdoome epoxy. Best stuff ever. I had a large snail moving / knocking corals over and no more!

it was secure to the point where i couldnt wiggle it with my finger......

... i found the frag, about 3 feet to the right and about 8 inches higher (on a rock structure) than its original place

theres no other way it could have gotten up there

we have a foxface at the store that likes to redecorate our frag tank! lol!

I had a large clarkii who rearranged my rock work on a regular basis, he'd be at the top of my suspect list, gave him to the hour away fish store(got nothing local)lol

Maybe you have a ghost in your house?

I'd put my money on the Clarkii's, especially if they are starting to get comfy and mate. I had a Maroon that started to rut and would pick up HUGE LPS colonies (like literally break them off the rock) and drag them to the back corner of the tank because "they didn't suit the decor". I also watched it more than a few times tail-whip my SPS colonies and shatter them to pieces, then bury them in the sand. My second guess is the foxface.

my clarkii's are still pretty small and they rarely leave their anemones

but i wouldnt be surprised if its my foxface.... he always seems ****ed at me, everytime i approach the tank he sticks his spines up

what are you or maybe aren't you feeding him? i know i can get ****y if i don't get a good supper

Sounds like my tomato clown aka "Dinkus"

i feed all my fish a couple times a day with smaller portions.

once when i get home; formula 1 food or NLS

and then around 8pm i feed frozen; brine or mysis or plankton

I'd put money on a tomato clown,there evil..i got rid of mine because of that.Stupid momma was throwing tyree sps frags around :( could even push a 6 inch clam mounted on a 3 lb rock away from her anemone.Can just decide one day..i dont like that there ..fling !!

i dont have a tomato clown.... just 2 small clarkii clowns

Have you checked for a crab? My friend had frags that moved around the tank randomly and it turned out it was a very hairly and large crab. I found it beside the coral frags perhaps it was making a home.

why is it we all get clowns when we have our tanks but we all end up hating them because they just like to clown around and do their thing.

i dunno about you guys.... but my clowns purpose is to gain the attention of the ladies.... they go crazy when they see nemos

Thief
 

The first thing I thought as I began reading your post was, 'I wounder if he has a Reagal Tang".... and yup he does! I had a 6-7"er and he would empty my frag rack almost every day! Took me weeks to figure it out, he would grab a frag swim backwards and drop it, usually into the middle of another colony. For this he had to go.
The way I look at it, I have an SPS reef with some fish, not a fish tank with some coral! You bug the coral, you gotta go!
He went to a FOWLR, for free, the ageed upon price, I might add.
Keith.

id sooner give up my corals before giving up my regal tang, he's my favorite

Hi, I would say it would be the Clarkii, I have a maroon clown who curious when I put new corals in, doesn't like where I put them and would move them around and knock them over....oh well here comes the 2 part epoxy. Regards Ken