Fish pulling a disappearing act, How long did you go without seeing it?

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

How long have you had a fish disappear in your without seeing it, only for it to suddenly appear again? I recently acquired a purple tile fish and right after I put it into the tank I did not see it for almost a month. Now this was no small fish It was about 4 1/2 maybe 5 inches, and I didn't see a single sign of it until three weeks after I had introduced him. He's out and about and swimming now and doing just fine but it had me curious how long have other people had fish disappear only to reappear again?

 

[Freenow54]

week and a half gone again for 3 days now

 

[fishface NJ]

2 weeks

 

[Terry Le]

5 months

 

[DmitryB]

I got a baby Biota Coral Beauty 3 weeks ago. I only see him in passing behind the rocks. Otherwise, he is in hiding. I assume he's eating stuff back there. I do have lots of copepods, hopefully the food I put in floats back there for him to eat. There is algae on the rocks too. I hope he stops the nonsense soon.

 

[NeMoo]

I have had an orange fire goby now over two months and seen him less than a dozen times…. I honestly keep wandering if he’s alive then I’ll catch a peek of him.

 

[PolypPocket]

5 months

What was it?

 

[Koty]

My mandrin shows up about once a month

 

[Chris_from_SoCal]

Diamond Goby dug himself a cave on day one and could only see his face with a flashlight. Three weeks later he decided to end that and since then is non stop sifting thru the sand and making himself known.

 

[Freenow54]

I think most of this is that they don't like the lights

 

[saltwaterfish.com Verified Sponsor]

5 months

That's crazy , what kind of fish was it?

 

[BryanM]

I've seen threads for 1-3 years.

I've only had fish disappear for a few days thusfar... unless I end up with two 6 line wrasses down the road because the one I replaced comes back (I waited 2 months to get a new one).

 

[winxp_man]

I get hiding type of fish never being seen. But swimming type fish that you constantly see as in angels or tangs?

Had a CB angel that was missing for 1 month. And showed up out of nowhere.

 

[Privateye]

About every 2 years for my circus goby. I think there was only 1 or 2 times I saw him without moving the tank, or checking the filter sock.

Really cool little guy, but that's what I get for just looking up photos and ordering one from a stock list. I totally should have done more research. I would have found out that they hide a lot and they're tiny. When it arrived it was as long as my thumbnail. Still, he's been a good fish for 7-8 years so far.

 

[EagleEye121]

I had a snowflake eel 20 or so years ago that went MIA for about 6 months. I was convinced he jumped and got eaten by the dog.

Rescaped the tank and there he was, under a rock and healthy as ever. No clue what he was eating LOL