Missing fish

[DarkHorseMBA]

Don't know if this is normal but my Royal Gramma has gone missing in my 75g.

He, Kobe, would hide in the rocks but every once on while I'd see him pop out. I've only had him a week and he would not eat much. For the last 24 he is no where to be found.

I don't want to move all the rock, but I'm concerned that is he died under the rock somewhere that the ammonia or nitrates will spike and kill my other 2 fish.

I have 6 hermits and I just added a 40+ assorted snails from reefcleaners. Will the CUC find him and clean up, or should I start moving rocks?


DarkHorseMBA
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[Kristy]

Wait it out. Because:
1. Royal Grammas really like to hide and they are remarkably good at it,
2. You have a clean up crew and they are remarkably good at finding the bodies and devouring them,
3. If he is still getting comfortable in the tank you would take some GIANT steps backwards by messing with the rockwork and torturing him, and
4. Fish that are new to a tank can take a while before you start to see them regularly. Mike added a new puffer to his tank a week and a half ago and we only saw it three times until 24 hours ago. We went a couple of days without any sight of him, hadn't EVER seen him eat, were sure he was a goner. Then he just comes cruising out of the rocks last night at feeding time with a nice plump belly and ate like a pig. Now he acts like he's always been here.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[jpond83]

I had a sweetlips 5" that showed up missing. Never found the body either. cleanup crew took care of it real quick.

[DarkHorseMBA]

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep you posted.


DarkHorseMBA
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[ErikH]

KOBE?

Oh no, don't know if I can offer advice anymore, LOL.

[Third Coast Tropical]

May look behind and around tank. Sometimes fish jump if they get spooked.

[aquasport24]

Check the sump also.

[DarkHorseMBA]

KOBE?

Oh no, don't know if I can offer advice anymore, LOL.

We are spurs fans, but the fish was purple and yellow. How could you not name him Kobe? :-)



DarkHorseMBA
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[DarkHorseMBA]

Check the sump also.

Nothing there, and I can't get behind the tank.
Going to check the water params, I figure if de died I'll see some spikes.


DarkHorseMBA
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[DarkHorseMBA]

All 0, and Nitrate is at 10, I usually run nitrates at 5, so that is a little high but not out of the ordinary.

Guess he's in there somewhere.


DarkHorseMBA
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[alton]

When i had my 200 I lost clownfish, large purple tang, blue spot jawfish. The culprit was a very large rock crab, I finally found his home and removed him. The only thing I every found was a small piece of jawfish which led me to his home. It is amazing what nocturnal items lurk in our tanks? Hopefully your fish will come back out during the day. If you look back at my post on the yellow head jawfish one of mine took a month to come out during the day. I believe he was use to hunting for food which the tank had a bunch of mysid shrimp which move at night so the jawfish kept that routine until he ran out of mysid and had to come out during the day to feed?

[allan]

I had a six line that disappeared for about a month, that and two fire fish. One day I was fooling around in the sump and the six just swam out of the macro, picked up a bit of debris floating through and swam back into the macro.

Fire fish still MIA.

I doubt that a royal gamma would cause much of a spike, if at all, with your CUC.