Argh..my 3 weeks old royal gamma has died on me.

[chrislzh]

May i know what might be the reasons why my royal gamma died.. has been with me over 3 weeks.. thought it was stable le.... sigh... found out that my small fishes don't really survived in my tank, while the bigger fishes are ok... all the fishes is reef safe and don't fight with each other... sigh... help me out... going crazy soon.. don't want to buy expensive fish le

[Dazza]

sori to hear that bro ... things like this happens sometimes but if theres a tendency for smaller fishes to die in your tank, maybe it cud be bullying by the bigger ones or perhaps u hv some crabs hidden in yr rocks? Just geussing tho

[chrislzh]

I also think it should be crabs. but i went through the initial ammonia spike... and think should kill them off... but not sure though... if there is a crab.. how should i kill them without endanger my corals and fishes... my tank is full of corals...

[Dazza]

its very hard to totally get rid of crabs ... when i see them i take out my bbq skewer ...

[WaNeR]

very hard to remove every 1 of them crab

i had my ammonia spike too when i cycle

tried to remove every single 1 of them whenever i rescape

last scape killed 7 of them

but i still c them in my tank

[KennethK]

When feeding try to spot them. Might be bristleworm or mantis oso.

[chrislzh]

any ways, of getting any fishes to kill them, but not endangering my fishes and corals..

[tineng]

guys, its very UNLIKELY that crab can be the main culprit. Unless its much bigger then the fish.....for your case, for a crab to be able to attack and kill a royal gama, it has to be at least 3-4 inch big!!!

imagine this, if you are sleeping and a dog bites you....you would likely to be woken up and kick at the dog/run away before it can eat you....same thing for the fish....unless the crab is significantly large that it could grab and hold on to the fish with its pincher, its unlikely it will be able to kill an otherwise healthy fish....also crabs like other animals will go for easy food rather then something it has to fight for....so likely, going for detrits, pods, algae, fish pool, left over food etc, rather then a live fish that it will have problem with - heck, your corals will probably be in more danger then your fish...its the law of nature, each animals are evolved to make the best use of avialable energy.....

look for other cause, water parameter, lack of a proper enviroment (for example, some fish needs sand bed), feeding, ich, stock selection, proper accemilmtie....etc.....

(PS: i had a super large 4 inch hariy crab in my old setup before, but my fishes, even those below 4 inch has never been killed before)

[Nickel]

If the died fish has been eating well and active, then all of sudden died within few weeks inside tank, do not rule out it was cyanide-caught, ie., poisoned.

As some above pointed out, it is not likely that a healthy fish can be attacked by crabs or other slower predators. Fish that were attacked by bigger or aggressive fish then to hide until you might not see it after a long period of time, maybe carcass never to be found .

[yklim]

i suspect yr fish is cynaide caught. I have heard of a few reefers case also liao