Fish are missing...Ideas?

[reeferaddict]

Have you found any bodies? I would be wary of having so many damselfish in such a small area, (clowns are damsels as well), I know my Maroon clown wouldn't tolerate any other kind of clown in my 72g. As for the Mandarins - no matter what anyone says about them eating "prepared" foods... they only get their proper diet from copeopods, and to provide them with enough pods you need 50lbs or more of live rock PER Mandarin to have any hope at all of keeping them healthy... I was at a LFS recently and while the guy was fishing around in a tank a chromis spooked and swam too close to a carpet anemone... WOW! It was SO quick... that fish was toast almost instantly... no second chance at all - kinda like skydidving!

[OCDP]

Originally Posted by reeferaddict

I was at a LFS recently and while the guy was fishing around in a tank a chromis spooked and swam too close to a carpet anemone... WOW! It was SO quick... that fish was toast almost instantly... no second chance at all - kinda like skydidving!

Ahaha.. kind of a creepy analogy.

[danny zubot]

Your clowns won't get eaten by the carpet (ok, there IS a chance) But anemones host clownfish.. and other damsels. This is why your clowns wont be eaten... because there is a symbiosis between the anemone and clownfish

The acception would be if the clowns are new to the environment. Even though clowns have a natural symbiosis with anemones, it does take time for them to adapt to the "sting", especially if you are dealing with carpet anemones. The Carpet probably didn't recognize the clowns as partners yet, so it ate them. Just my theory.

[OCDP]

And the fact that they were tank raised probably didn't help. Had they been wild I think they may have had more recognition of the anemone and how to adapt to it? That would be my guess anyhow.