Its a mystery!

[ckeller]

Good Morning Everyone!

How long would it take approx 3 Red Legged Hermit crabs and 4 to 5 Blue leg hermit crabs to eat a medium size Bangaii Cardinal??

I had a sick cardinal last night before I went to bed and this morning, I cannot find him at all, I have used a flash light to look into the rockwork and nothing. Usually when something is a dead, the crabs are all over it, and they seem to be just laying around the tank.

I am going to test for ammonia now.

[Doctor_Reef]

The Cardinal could be in the rock and you are just not seeing it...It doesn't take long for the cleanup crew to take care of business!

[Sugar Magnolia]

It could be in the rockwork, or your clean up crew may have taken care of it. Don't forget about the bristleworms and any onmivorous snails you may have in the tank, they wll have had a hand in consuming the dead fish.

[ckeller]

It just seems so fast for them to have eaten a fish that big. I don't really want to move all the rock work!!

I recently moved and I gave all my other fish to the lfs in my old city. I had the tank set up here and then I added two bangaii cardinals. Last night the one that is missing was not looking so good. I tried to catch him, but he was still well enough to avoid the net. I stopped because I did not want to stress him anymore. The other cardinal is doing great and my 4 small mushrooms have been doing even better since the move! The have been opening up a lot in the daytime. I have never seen them rise off the rock like that.

[Doctor_Reef]

Your clean up crew will take care of the bangaii if he is dead...you shouldn't have to move the rock...What kind of lighting do you have???

[Sugar Magnolia]

I had a 3 inch six line wrasse die in one of my nanos and within 1/2 and hour, the majority of the fish was gone. Snails, bristleworms, hermits came out of everywhere and had a feast.

[ckeller]

Ok mystery solved and I have removed him from the tank. He was under (of course) all the rockwork and now I have a newly re-arranged landscape inside the tank. He was pretty much still whole, except he had no backend. Its a shame, I really like how the rock looked before. :(

Now I have to wait for all the silt to settle. That is what I hate most about moving the rocks, it kicks up everything.

I have 2 x 65watt PC bulbs on my tank.

[Doctor_Reef]

Glad the problem is solved!!! :)

[Sugar Magnolia]

Don't you just hate having to remove rocks? They never seem to go back together the way you origianlly had it.