About a month ago I added a bonded pair of pencil wrasses to my 260 FOWLR. When transferring the male to the DT, he instantly shot out of the net to the far corner of the tank and disappeared. The female headed for the sand bed and buried herself. She made her appearance a few days later but I never saw the male again. I posted on here and Evolved and others said give it days, weeks, or even a month, but don't go poling around the sandbed trying to find it, so I didn't. Meanwhile, some of my fish got body flukes. They killed my melanarus, royal gramma, flame angel and dwarf lion despite starting PraziPro at the first sign. Fortunately my emperor angel and other large fish survived. Although I never saw signs of flukes on the female pencil wrasse, she disappeared about a week after I started the treatment and I figure that she must have died from the flukes as well.
Fast forward to today. I'm almost done with the PraziPro treatment. The guy from my LFS who installed my tank (it's an in-wall that was built in during home construction) came by to work on the plumbing. He calls me at work and says "do you know there's a wrasse living in your sump?" Say what? I come home, get a flashlight and sure enough, the male pencil wrasse is chilling my sump! I have no idea how he got there or how he survived this long. Since my tank is in-wall, it has an end overflow and a tight fitting lid with only about a quarter inch gap between the lid and the top of the overflow. Obviously he was able to squirt through there, but that drains into filter socks in my sump that have a flow rate like Niagra Falls. I clean them every week but occasionally they clog up and overflow. I guess the wrasse must have been stuck in the sock till it overflowed, then surfed the overflow into the sump. My sump is bare bottom so he has been hiding behind the skimmer pump, which is why I have never seen him before, but I have no idea what he could possibly have been eating.
Tonight after the lights in my tank went off and he was sleeping behind the pump, I scooped him up and put him back in the DT. He instantly went to the bottom and buried in the sand. He must be thrilled to have a nice warm bed. I hope I'll see him again soon, but since he's been living in a sump inside a dark cabinet for a month in the pitch black, I imagine it might take him a while to adjust to the lighting.
Sorry for the long winded story but I was totally shocked and thrilled to find him and had to share. I just feel that much worse now that his bride disappeared as well. I checked the sump for her too but no luck. She could be in the overflow but it is behind my wall so I can't really check.
Fast forward to today. I'm almost done with the PraziPro treatment. The guy from my LFS who installed my tank (it's an in-wall that was built in during home construction) came by to work on the plumbing. He calls me at work and says "do you know there's a wrasse living in your sump?" Say what? I come home, get a flashlight and sure enough, the male pencil wrasse is chilling my sump! I have no idea how he got there or how he survived this long. Since my tank is in-wall, it has an end overflow and a tight fitting lid with only about a quarter inch gap between the lid and the top of the overflow. Obviously he was able to squirt through there, but that drains into filter socks in my sump that have a flow rate like Niagra Falls. I clean them every week but occasionally they clog up and overflow. I guess the wrasse must have been stuck in the sock till it overflowed, then surfed the overflow into the sump. My sump is bare bottom so he has been hiding behind the skimmer pump, which is why I have never seen him before, but I have no idea what he could possibly have been eating.
Tonight after the lights in my tank went off and he was sleeping behind the pump, I scooped him up and put him back in the DT. He instantly went to the bottom and buried in the sand. He must be thrilled to have a nice warm bed. I hope I'll see him again soon, but since he's been living in a sump inside a dark cabinet for a month in the pitch black, I imagine it might take him a while to adjust to the lighting.
Sorry for the long winded story but I was totally shocked and thrilled to find him and had to share. I just feel that much worse now that his bride disappeared as well. I checked the sump for her too but no luck. She could be in the overflow but it is behind my wall so I can't really check.
