Lost my fire fish

[GR00VY]

I literally lost him. I saw him in the tank 3 mornings ago and that was the last I saw him. I added nothing new to the tank so he shouldn’t have spooked. I searched all his little dens and he is not in any of them and there are no new disturbed spots where he may have tunneled. I only have a 29 gallon tank so I can search it pretty easily. I know sometimes when I feed my fish the clownfish will spook him so he goes darting around. I have a few opened spots on my lid where certain equipment goes through. They are decent sized openings in some spots. I think he may have jumped out. Maybe the clownfish spooked him and he darted and just happened to be by one of the openings. Probably turned into a snack for my cats or dog. :-(

 

[luke fortunato]

hate to say it but check the floor and area around the tank- might have jumped

 

[GR00VY]

I’m pretty sure he jumped because I have looked everywhere and in the past if he was in a den he would come out when he smelled the food when feeding time came around.

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Ive gone days without seeing mine. In fact, I went out of town two weeks ago and three days after I came back I still hadn’t seen it so I asked my wife if he’d been out eating. She said yes and sure enough, next day he popped out of a hole and started doing his little flick dance waiting for food.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

They will jump through any opening that their head can squeeze through.

 

[BigRed78]

I lost a Sword-tail Dart fish for over 3 months in a 29 gallon until one day I saw him swimming around out in the open like nothing happened. I have a glass lid and I put tape over all of the openings so nothing can get out. If you have a sump I would recommend some sort of lid and taping up the edges. I've also made lids out of that greenhouse plastic material stuff. If you do not have a sump I would be worried about proper gas exchange but i'm sure someone with more knowledge could address that concern better.

 

[Jesterrace]

Dartfish are insanely quick. Had a Purple Firefish and a Scissortail Dartfish and they could hit my lid with amazing speed and vanish even quicker. If something spooked it you may not see it for a few days.

 

[Pbh-reef]

If you have a sump or AIO back chamber check there I lost a hi-fin goby there several times

 

[GR00VY]

So I have officially given up hope that he may be hiding somewhere. Too long of one has passed. I am certain he jumped and probably became a snack.

 

[Pbh-reef]

Always makes me so sad to lose a fish

 

[GR00VY]

I found my firefish. I was moving my stand and putting a new one in place and found him on top of a bundle of wires behind the stand. I remember when I lost him I looked under the stand and all over the floor. He just happened to jump out and land on a couple of wires and I didn’t see him.