Who Killed my Royal Gramma

[Anonymous]

I bought a RG that appeared to be doing fine. He ate well and darted about like a good lad. I never noticed anyone picking on him. But I only had him for a week.

He came up MIA yesterday and now his body is laying in ruins on the sandbed.

Murder? or natural?

I have a Yellow Tang, a Coral Beauty, a Perula Clown, a big Coral Banded (snaps at fish, but yet to see him hit one), a one armed Emerald Crab, and a Brittle Star.

My tank is a 60 gallon tank and the water tests are good.

Are any of these fish or inverts known to kill other fish?

 

[daveyakiwchuk]

I have actually caught my brittle star eating my yellow tang. It died shortley after.

Do you have many blue leg hermits? They are like magnets on dead fish and will turn a corpse into just bones in no time.

 

[dagnir]

If it was a fish in the tank I would consider the Yellow Tang they can be nasty to new tankmates. Just a thought. It may very well have been no one and the Gramma just died.

 

[smoothmove]

I had the same thing this week. Found RG DRT- dead right there. Dunno why, no one was picking on it. I don't lose fish usually so this is wierd.

I am hesitant to get another one now. Who knows :roll:

 

[rlp1]

My vote goes to the brittlestar as the culprit. I had a killer brittlestar (harlequin) once that was picking off the occupants of my tank one by one. I finally caught it & gave it to someone (with a warning) who later reported it ate their royal gramma. BTW in my tank the brittle was well-fed, receiving its own chunk of food whenever I fed the fish (at least twice a day). Rita

 

[rlp1]

oops

 

[texasreefer]

Normally brittlestars only eat fish if they are already dead or dying. If a fish is heathly a brittlestar can't catch it.

 

[sjfishguy]

When you guys are talkin about the brittle stars, are you talking about the ones with the spiny arms or smooth arms? I have heard red serpent stars are less of a problem than others. Has anyone else heard this?

 

[daveyakiwchuk]

MY yellow tang was healthy as can be, The star attacks at night when the fish are dosile. I found the star on top of the tang trying to eat it, I put my arm in and ripped him off, however it was to late for my tang.....

The star fish was gone the next day!!!

I have had a royal gramma for 3 years now, he is fine.

 

[ophiuroid]

There is no biological difference between brittlestars and serpentstars.

I find it unlikely to be the brittlestar would kill the Gramma and not consume it. That doesn't sound right at all. They normally would eat it, not just cut it up. Doesn't make any sense, based on other reports of attacks.

I find it difficult to believe a brittlestar caught and ate an otherwise healthy tang.

These guys will, however, happily take advantage of a sick, stressed or dead fish.

However, seeing fish freak out simply by turning lights on, one would think that a healthy tang could overpower a brittlestar trying to crawl on top of it. I have seen predatory attacks by deep sea brittlestars on larger fish, but the fish overpower the brittlestar and break free rather quickly. Perhaps it was a very small tang.

Based on the fact that the gramma was cut up, and because I have heard of it happening, my vote is for the CBS.