Missing Fish

[droth]

I purchased a 3” long Spotted Yellow Wrasse on Monday and after acclimation he immediately darted into a large cave in my live rock. Ever since then I haven’t seen one inch of this fish. It’s like he completely disappeared. I took a small LED flashlight and looked everywhere and just can’t find him.

Should I be worried?

I really don’t want to have to start to disassemble my corals and life rock just to find him but what if he died, isn’t that going to add a huge bio load to my water conditions?

 

[r2d2]

Is your tank fully cicled?
Maybe is just hidding... if you can move some pieces of rock to look into reef, do it, just to have peace of mind.
I've lost some fish and never see a body, basically two gobies. I started to test for amonia but no readings at all. After a week or so made a large water change and forget about my lost fish.

Greetings

 

[droth]

Arturo it's only been 4 weeks since I put my live rock in the aquarium and I never really had an spikes in Amonia or Nitrites. After talking to a number of people I've been told that may be because I purchased the live rock from a friend with an established aquarium who already had the rock cycled. It already had a lot of nice purple colour to it. I know it hasn't been that long but I'll be watching things closely and hopefully everything will be good.

I quess I'll just wait it out a bit longer and if he doesn't show up I try moving a couple things around. I'll also keep a close eye on the water quality.

Thanks for the reply!!

David

 

[Poonaka]

I once had a 2" yellow angelfish die during the night. The next morning he was almost a skeleton as my crabs were having a great feast. They basically devoured him in under 8 hours.

 

[BigAl07]

Depending on your clean up crew if it expired there may not be much left of it. This quickly it could indeed still be hiding.

What size tank is it?

I'd test now and every day for a few days to watch for an Ammonia spike.

 

[waucedah_joe]

I had a high finned gobey that I did not see for 3 months! Then, one day, it just darted out of the rocks to feed. Now I see it nearly every day. Don't give up yet.

 

[droth]

It’s a 40-gallon tank with about 55lbs of live rock. The tank measures 22”w x 18”d x 26”h. I presently have two small clowns and a frogspawn coral in the tank. My Clown fish are still hiding out in the rocks but they recently have come out to eat and then go back into the cave at the bottom of the rocks. I test my water every night and usually have to add about an inch of water every day because of evaporation. I have 10 very small crabs and 10 snails as far as a clean-up crew. Should I think about getting something else for keeping the tank clean?

Thanks for the replies everyone!

David

 

[themanthelegond]

I think these guys hide in the sand as well, might check that as well as the overflow if you have one.

 

[Clownfish518]

I think these guys hide in the sand as well, might check that as well as the overflow if you have one.

I have a friend who broke down her tank recently so her house could be reconstructed. She removed all the rocks, corals, and fishes, leaving behind just the sand with a few inches of water over it (no heater or aeration). Two weeks later she went to empty the sand out of the tank and dump the water, and her yellow wrasse came flying out of the sand.

These guys are tough, and good hiders

 

[droth]

You guys aren’t going to believe this but I went home for lunch and guess who was swimming around the aquarium. I don’t know where he was hiding but he looks great and he didn’t even seem to shy away when I approached the glass (YAAAA!). I feel much better now. You know when I put him in the tank after the acclimation process and I saw him just out of the corner of my eye take off, I did see a big cloud of sand in the water. I wouldn’t doubt it if he was hiding under the sand somewhere.

Mystery Solved!

Thanks, David

 

[r2d2]

Im glad you find him alive and swimming...