Loosing fish dont know why

[Keri]

You'd be suprised what you can find hiding in 200lbs of LR....even months and months later. It could be a larger crab or even a mantis.


You should try spotlighting a bit late at night with a flashlight, see if you can see anything funny.

[Whatigot]

I picked up a blue led flashlight that is ultrabright but does not seem to scare my tankt he way a white light does.
it works really well for having a look at my pistols and crabs at night, I caugt one crab that way.

[Myka]

I'm thinking it's a mantis or pistol shrimp. Do you hear any "clicking" at night particularly when the lights first go out? I had a mantis in a 33g tank for 8 months before I found it. There was a 3" crab in a friend's 180g tank for over a year before he found it. So, sometimes things hide VERY well for a LONG time!!

[Bryan]

Used to have the same problem, until I came home one day and noticed a Mantis shrimp scrurrying across the sand. He had been there for years and I had no clue, every once in a while I would hear a click but attributed it to a snail falling off the glass. Took me a long time to find his lair.

[gkersten]

Thanks for the replies . I have set a trap and will see what happens.

[Bryan]

Never had any luck with a trap, I had to pull out each and every rock and inspect it to find it's "little nest". And as luck would have it, it was literally the last rock I pulled out in the tank where he was hiding.

Hope you have better luck<g>

[fishytime]

I am thinking that perhaps the fact that you have put a large bio-load in what is basically a brand new set up may be your issue. What brand and how old are your test kits? Have you taken a sample of your water to your LFS to confirm your readings? If your problem started more than a month ago that would mean your tank was only two months ish old, which is fairly new to be adding that many fish at once. It is possible that your fish are dying from water quality and your clean up crew are taking care of the carcass.