Can a Worm kill fish?

Runner · Aug 25, 2009

Over the last month or two, I've had several fish disappear. The small gobies I understand -- they could hide forever in the rock I have. But now my firefish and hector's goby disappeared over the same 2-night span. No bodies. No traces.

I have nothing I know of that could kill them. I have seen a big, 6-inch worm that could be a fireworm. Too fast for me to catch, though. And I have a few large regular mushrooms -- but I'd think they'd leave bones behind if they were eating things. Any ideas what I should look for?

Spongie · Aug 25, 2009

I am not sure about a worm but, I wouldn't rule it out. I would think a more likely culprit to be something like a Mantis shrimp or the like. You haven't been missing any corals lately have you? Did you try adding a cube of some frozen meaty food to try and coax all of the fish out of hiding?

Runner · Aug 25, 2009

No corals are going missing, but the last two fish went missing after I didn't feed the the tank for about 2 days. I've tossed in frozen cyclops the last two days. Everything in the tank goes nuts. The neon goby (who never hides, anyway) goes into a feeding frenzy.

digidana · Aug 25, 2009

what kind of tank scott? in my 14g cube, my green stripe is hiding with the filter, and my purple firefish is in with the pump in the back. can't get the sucker out. my clown used to jump back there all the time and i'd scoop him out with a ladle. any chance they're in an overflow, etc?

Runner · Aug 25, 2009

I have a 24G cube. And, nope, they are not back there. I just checked with a flashlight. They were very active fish before they disappeared. The only fish I have left that I've seen in a while is the neon goby -- and he never goes down into the rocks.

mkenochm · Aug 27, 2009

Do you have any big hairy mushrooms? I've got several and never had any trouble but have heard horror stories about them swallowing fish, like carpet anemones would. I've even found a couple of pictures of it online.

Runner · Aug 27, 2009

A couple of big red mushroom and one huge purple. None are hairy -- they are all smooth. I do not think they could close on the firefish, though, unless they bent over him. And even then, wouldn't I see bones left over?

digidana · Aug 27, 2009

my bet is still that they're in the back. they get down in those nooks and crannies and are really hard to see...

GPhiAce · Aug 30, 2009

I do believe that worms can eat fish. At our swap, one of the chatt reefers brought a worm that he caught in his tank that was a fish and coral eatter. I don't know if this is the case with you, but I would try to get out the large worm for safe measure. I recently lost my McCoster's flasher wrasse (about a week ago). There is no trace at all. I thought that my tiger pistol buried him alive or something-- not to sure if that is most likely. Wish I could help more. Where are the great randini and the all knowing cee when you need them?

ct_vol · Aug 30, 2009

That was a Eunicid worm that was brought to our swap, and Scott has experience with those... I would be surprised if he has another one, depending upon where he got his rock from...