Blue Spotted Puffer - Has it killedmy fish?

Question
I have (or rather had) a saltwater tank with 2 clown fish (babies) a Cleaner Shrip, a Hermit Crab, Sand sifting Gobie, we the introduced a Blue Spotted Puffer and an Emperor Angel fish.  They all seemed to get along fine as the shop said they would, other than a bit of fin nipping! Anyway on Sunday we woke up to find our Emperor dead! Then on the Monday we found BOTH of our Clowns dead too! Our shrip and gobie stay in hidding and the crab realy comes out of hi shell... Could this be down to the Puffer?  We were told he would be fine with all our fish, but im now starting to thing he's a bit of a bully and has killed of a third of my tank?

Is this what the problem could be?  I dont want to introduce new fish if thats the case, but my tank looks awfully empty now.

Thanks.

Answer
Sarah, OMG.  This sounds so bad. I am so sorry for you... To lose fish sucks, but to lose little baby clownfish sucks more...


If the puffer killed the fish, then he would have eaten them. he could have harassed them to death, but I am not sure several would die at a time,

But yes, puffers are aggressive, not so much in the mean sense of the word, but more towards the hungry form of that word.  He really wants to eat everything that he can possibly catch...

so, he might have hunted them down till they die of exhaustion but, he would not huntthem if he didnt think he had a chance...

Something else might be going on...

BUT, I would not add anything to the tank until you figure that out and understand what will be safe once you figure out what went wrong here.

As i said, puffers will hunt for thier food and will leave most everything it doesnt think it can eat alone.  Thatmeans larger fish. fish that couldnt possibly fit into it's mouth.

As for the shrimp and snails and crabs.  They arent safe either.  If they have holes to hide in, they may not come out as much due to the puffer...

I would seriously consider having the puffer, or any aggressive fish... They are COOL AS HELL, but if they eat the 'clean up crew' then you will have to do the job that the clean up crew should be doing...


PLEASE get me the water parameters.  Also let me know how often you do water changes and how often do you add fresh water?

Tell me a little about your filtration system, i.e. cannister or sump, or ???

Also let me kno whow long you have had the fish and when was the puffer added, (early or later on?)

Anyways, I hope to be able to help you on this so you can get your little community back together...


Bill