Who murdered my maroon clown?

[Marine Newbie]

My maroon clown's tail just been bitten off last night, the other tank inhabitants are 2 common clown, one bicolor dottyback and one electric blue hermit crab. Who could have murdered the maroon clown. The maroon clown is the largest of the fishes in the tank.. sob sob..

[damsels]

Usually the habitants you mentioned should not pose a threat to a maroon. But situation can vary, I have an common clown that chased after my maroon before...haha

Otherwise, any dangerous crabs or mantis shrimps in the LRs, etc???

[Guinness]

I think u got yourself an Alien running loose in your tank. Probably a mantis, is it a new tank?

[Marine Newbie]

ya it's a new tank, around for one month plus. That's sounds worrying!! I had a blue regal tang but it also died not long ago, there were like bruises around the head area, when i took the corpse out, there seems to be blood stains. What am i suppose to do now? i think it's hard to find the loose murderer!

[penyu]

Ive experienced that before when I initially started my tank. My common clowns died with bruises on the body. Checked water parameters and it was fine. So, no idea wat caused the death of the clowns. Thankfully the fishes are fine now and the problem is no longer experienced.

[damsels]

Not sure how big is the murderer and whether it is a mantis, but certain dottyback may prey on them

[XPeriment 626]

yah bicolor dottybacks are notoriously aggressive and territorial, especially to fish around the same size or smaller. mine created a lot of problems for my juvenile blue tang until the tang grew bigger and bully him back