How do you loose a fish?

Peccavi18 · Apr 11, 2009

I have or maybe had??? a Coral Beauty was in the tank swimming around Wednesday night. Thursday mid day the g/f had her niece and nephew over looking at the tank and she couldn't find it. I looked when I got in in the afternoon and couldn't find it, and have looked numerous times since. The glass tops are on. The skimmer pump is the only pump in the tank and it has a full cover on it, well and the two K3's but he was to big to get in them. No bones, no body no fins nothing.... I have a clean up crew but not that big of one. I looked in all the obivious holes, and even checked parameters to make sure it wasn't rotting somewhere, no luck so far??????

Sikryd · Apr 11, 2009

Cleanup crew munched it, and you just haven't seen the bones. They will swim in a tiny crevis before they die sometimes, and you won't find the skeleton - it'll just "melt" away.

Paul_N · Apr 11, 2009

I agree, he probably died and was eatin up or wasting away inside the rocks. What other kind of fish do you have?

bigmatt1992 · Apr 12, 2009

ether a biger fish munched him down or he died of something else and clean up crew got him.

Peccavi18 · Apr 12, 2009

Other fish are a false perc and a lawnmower blenny. He was fine eating the night before looking all fat and happy, and gone the next day?? The only thing I can possibly think is the frogspawn may have stung him to death? He used to hide and swim through the hole I just moved the frogspawn into and seemed a little peeved that it was in his "territory" but I hadn't seen him actually go right up to the coral.
Don't know, still no sign of him or remains. Even crawled behind the tank just to make sure he didn't jump and make it thoguh the tiny slit behind the glass top.

Paul_N · Apr 12, 2009

I had lost fish in the past when I had a FOWLR and never found any remains anywhere. Like Sikryd said, he could have just crawled in a crevasse when the end was near. Just keep an eye out for spikes in nitrates and ammonia. That is the one thing about having a large and diverse CUC, they will eat the remains in no time at all.