Did my starfish eat my goby???

foxy_puff

Small Fish
Mar 26, 2010
22
0
0
Van Buren, AR
#1
I've had a yellow clown/coral goby for about 3 months. He's always done great and was the friendliest fish in the tank. Last night before bed I checked on everyone with the tank lights out and he was sleeping in his regular spot on a fake anemone. This morning he was gone! Completely gone with no trace. I looked everywhere. The only unusual thing I noticed was my chocolate chip starfish had a yellow substance around his mouth (please see pics). Other tank inhabitants that I'm aware of are 3 red tipped and 2 blue legged hermit crabs, a peppermint and coral banded shrimp, a firefish, 3 narcissus snails, a turbo snail, some asterina starfish, amphipods, a sponge, mushroom coral, brain coral, mini anemone/feather duster things, 2 kinds of macro algae, coralline algae, and of course live rock. A couple months ago I added a guppy that I'd acclimated to saltwater to the tank. I kept an eye on him for about 15 min and he was doing great. I turned off the light and left the room. I came back to check on him an hour later and he had been pulled into a hole in a live rock and something had chewed up his head. (This was before the starfish was in the tank). Do you think the starfish is the culprit this time or something hiding in the live rock? If there's something in my live rock what do I do about it? This piece of LR has a beautiful sponge growing on it which I don't want to kill. Any ideas? I don't want to lose anyone else. :( Thank you!
 

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quaddity

Large Fish
Feb 25, 2007
641
0
0
Mesa, AZ
www.myspace.com
#2
Very unlikely the starfish killed the goby. Clown gobies have a low survival rate in aquariums. The star fish might have clean up the dead goby though. Keep a watch at night to try and see what you have living in the rock.
 

foxy_puff

Small Fish
Mar 26, 2010
22
0
0
Van Buren, AR
#3
That's a shame. The goby seemed to be doing great though. He ate very well and always came up to see me. :(

How do I go about finding out what's living in the rock? I've tried going up with the tank lights off and the bedroom light dimmed but never see anything. I've been preparing a 29 gallon tank to upgrade to. Should I wait until I find out what happened?
 

quaddity

Large Fish
Feb 25, 2007
641
0
0
Mesa, AZ
www.myspace.com
#4
That's a shame. The goby seemed to be doing great though. He ate very well and always came up to see me. :(

How do I go about finding out what's living in the rock? I've tried going up with the tank lights off and the bedroom light dimmed but never see anything. I've been preparing a 29 gallon tank to upgrade to. Should I wait until I find out what happened?
If it's a crab you can try putting a glass jar in at an angle near the rock where you saw the fish being eaten. Put a piece of shrimp in the bottom of the jar and leave it overnight. Crabs will climb in but can't climb out. I've had a couple clown gobies in tanks before and they always seem to disappear one day like yours did.