How do I know if my anemone ate my fish?

New to Saltwater and I think my anemone ate my fish!! I have a 125g tank and currently have 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 lawn mower blenny, 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 wrasse, 1 starfish, a bunch of blue leg hermit crabs, a Condy anemone and 1 diamond goby. I just added all of these a few days ago as I have been waiting for my tank to be ready for fish. Everyone is doing great.....however, my diamond goby is mia. Of course he hid as soon as I put him in the tank which I expected. I caught a glimpse of him the day after I got him but ever since he has been invisible. I figured he's just hiding because I just recently got him but I still expected to catch at least a glimpse of him every now and then. So I'm starting to worry. I got all the fish at the same time from the same store and the guy made it seem like it was fine to have the Condy and my fish all together. Well today I noticed a translucent string of slime on the sand and I'm wondering if that is the remnants of my goby from the Condy? If the anemone did eat him would this slimy stuff be left behind? How do I know if my anemone really did eat him? I don't want to move my live rock around to search for him because the blenny and wrasse hide under them and I don't wanna squish any one. So do you think my anemone ate my diamond goby

 

I don't know the answer to your question but did want to welcome you to FishLore
Carol

 

Thx

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Oh also, if this is the case and my anemone ate my fish are there any types of anemone that are ok to keep in a community tank? Mine is a FOWLR but I will be getting soft coral after it has been established for a while. I really want one for my clowns and because I like how they look. I know the Condy most likely won't host my clowns I just liked the color it was, I want to get a BTA for my clowns but if I'm going to be constantly losing fish to them I'll pass :/

 

Anyone?

 

Patience It may take as long as 24 hrs to get an answer.
carol

 

Technically speaking, your FOWLR is now a reef

That's a lot of stock to add in one day. What have your readings been like?

How did you acclimate all of these specimens?

The diamond goby is a sand sifter (as you know), and they feed heavily on copepods, it's possible that there may not be enough food

Are there any signs of activity, for example, little mounds of sand building? Sand looking like it is being cleaned and turned over? It is not uncommon for these fish to go into hiding for a few days after getting them.

Also, was your live rock placed on the glass, or on the sand bed? Is it possible that in building its burrow, the rock above sank and possibly trapped your goby?

To answer your specific query, I don't think the Condy ate your goby. Anemones rely on prey swimming past, and those that get too close may get stung, and become dinner. Being a sand sifter, I don't think the goby would get close enough to the Condy's tentacles to get stung. I may be wrong, but I don't think the anemone was the culprit. The 'nem may eat an already deceased fish if it floats past, but specifically 'hunting', I don't think so.

 

If the goby died then maybe drifted into the anemone, it may have eaten it after it was already dead.

 

Technically speaking, your FOWLR is now a reef

That's a lot of stock to add in one day. What have your readings been like?

How did you acclimate all of these specimens?

The diamond goby is a sand sifter (as you know), and they feed heavily on copepods, it's possible that there may not be enough food

Are there any signs of activity, for example, little mounds of sand building? Sand looking like it is being cleaned and turned over? It is not uncommon for these fish to go into hiding for a few days after getting them.

Also, was your live rock placed on the glass, or on the sand bed? Is it possible that in building its burrow, the rock above sank and possibly trapped your goby?

To answer your specific query, I don't think the Condy ate your goby. Anemones rely on prey swimming past, and those that get too close may get stung, and become dinner. Being a sand sifter, I don't think the goby would get close enough to the Condy's tentacles to get stung. I may be wrong, but I don't think the anemone was the culprit. The 'nem may eat an already deceased fish if it floats past, but specifically 'hunting', I don't think so.

I acclimated them by using a tube and having my tank water drip into the water they were in for about an hour. Everyone else is doing great and my parameters are perfect. Everyone is eating and as happy as can be its hard to say about activity as the other fish have made burrows under the rock and the blenny messes with the sand a little bit too lol so not sure if any of he caves or sand is from the goby or not :/ as for placement of the live rock, I put the sand first and then the rock but I let the rock settle for 3 or 4 days before adding any fish. Also the other fish have made caves under a few of the rocks and have had no problems so I don't know why the goby would've gotten crushed or trapped. My LFS also said they highly doubt the Condy ate him. I'm just worried and stumped that I haven't seen any sign of him

 

If the goby died then maybe drifted into the anemone, it may have eaten it after it was already dead.

If that were the case would any sign of a carcass be spit or pooped out or anything? I just really would like to know what happened to him...wheather the anemone got him or he just died for some reason crossing my fingers that he's just being extremely shy right now.

 

If the 'nem got the goby, you probably won't see any signs of a carcass, and with the cleanup crew you have (CBS, hermits), it wouldn't take long (a matter of hours) for the cleanup crew to 'remove all evidence'.

Gobies can sometimes be tricky to acclimate

Hopefully your guy is just being shy.