Missing Fish

[RaisingTinyHobbits]

I added a Wheeler's Shrimp Goby and a fire fish back to my tank after going fallow about 3 weeks ago. They hid for the first couple of days and then seemed to be confidently out and about. About a week in the Goby found one of the pistol shrimp and I caught the 2 of them darting back into their rockwork, but haven't seen them since. Now the firefish is missing, too. 4 days ago he was hanging out more in his cave amd not swimming around, but came out when prodded. That was the last time I saw it though. Ive taken a flashlight and searched all the rockwork that I can and there's been no sign of them. I know people have posted about fish going cryptic, but how long of not seeing them before it's reasonable for me.to be concerned?

 

[TheNative192]

I added a Wheeler's Shrimp Goby and a fire fish back to my tank after going fallow about 3 weeks ago. They hid for the first couple of days and then seemed to be confidently out and about. About a week in the Goby found one of the pistol shrimp and I caught the 2 of them darting back into their rockwork, but haven't seen them since. Now the firefish is missing, too. 4 days ago he was hanging out more in his cave amd not swimming around, but came out when prodded. That was the last time I saw it though. Ive taken a flashlight and searched all the rockwork that I can and there's been no sign of them. I know people have posted about fish going cryptic, but how long of not seeing them before it's reasonable for me.to be concerned?

Did you go fallow to kill off parasites? 3 Weeks is very short. Also if you go fallow and do not add any waste to the tank then you can have a die off of beneficial bacteria leading to an ammonia spike.

Also need more info, what size of tank, any other fish in the tank, Is there a lot of rock work for them to hide in?

 

[RaisingTinyHobbits]

I added a Wheeler's Shrimp Goby and a fire fish back to my tank after going fallow about 3 weeks ago. They hid for the first couple of days and then seemed to be confidently out and about. About a week in the Goby found one of the pistol shrimp and I caught the 2 of them darting back into their rockwork, but haven't seen them since. Now the firefish is missing, too. 4 days ago he was hanging out more in his cave amd not swimming around, but came out when prodded. That was the last time I saw it though. Ive taken a flashlight and searched all the rockwork that I can and there's been no sign of them. I know people have posted about fish going cryptic, but how long of not seeing them before it's reasonable for me.to be concerned?

Did you go fallow to kill off parasites? 3 Weeks is very short. Also if you go fallow and do not add any waste to the tank then you can have a die off of beneficial bacteria leading to an ammonia spike.

Also need more info, what size of tank, any other fish in the tank, Is there a lot of rock work for them to hide in?

These are some pictures of the rock setup. It's an IM 25 Nuvo lagoon. I went fallow because my precious clownfish unexpectedly died and we couldn't pin point a reason so it was out of precaution. I did more than 76 days fallow before reintroducing new fish. There are some snails and a hermit crab in there and I was dealing with SCA dinos during that time so I ghost feed the tank to maintain the bacteria and was dosing phytplankton and Microbacter7 as part of the dino treatment. To begin with the reintroduced I just put those 2 fish and 2 pistol shrimp in with plans to add clownfish after getting some coral growth and habitat.

 

[JTP424]

No cover standard?
If you have any pets I would even consider it may have jumped and the other pet got a midnight snack.

 

[TheNative192]

These are some pictures of the rock setup. It's an IM 25 Nuvo lagoon. I went fallow because my precious clownfish unexpectedly died and we couldn't pin point a reason so it was out of precaution. I did more than 76 days fallow before reintroducing new fish. There are some snails and a hermit crab in there and I was dealing with SCA dinos during that time so I ghost feed the tank to maintain the bacteria and was dosing phytplankton and Microbacter7 as part of the dino treatment. To begin with the reintroduced I just put those 2 fish and 2 pistol shrimp in with plans to add clownfish after getting some coral growth and habitat.

Have you checked Ammonia levels. I have a similar size tank and my one Goby would hide and I took out all the rock work and he literally jumped out of the tank and back into the tank after I removed the rock he was hiding under totally fine after months of coming out & he hid for over 1 month long.

Do you usually have a lid. Gobies can fly and will 100% jump out without a lid sometimes feet away.

 

[Fish & Coral Store]

did you check the back area of your tank? like the sump area in black?

 

[RaisingTinyHobbits]

No cover standard?
If you have any pets I would even consider it may have jumped and the other pet got a midnight snack.

Sorry, this picture was from my inital setup, I just felt like it gave the best idea of the rock steucture itself as a whole. I do have the mesh lid that comes with the tank on it normally and only take it off for maintenance/feeding.

 

[RaisingTinyHobbits]

did you check the back area of your tank? like the sump area in black?

I shined a light back in there and didn't see anything

 

[Freenow54]

I added a Wheeler's Shrimp Goby and a fire fish back to my tank after going fallow about 3 weeks ago. They hid for the first couple of days and then seemed to be confidently out and about. About a week in the Goby found one of the pistol shrimp and I caught the 2 of them darting back into their rockwork, but haven't seen them since. Now the firefish is missing, too. 4 days ago he was hanging out more in his cave amd not swimming around, but came out when prodded. That was the last time I saw it though. Ive taken a flashlight and searched all the rockwork that I can and there's been no sign of them. I know people have posted about fish going cryptic, but how long of not seeing them before it's reasonable for me.to be concerned?

i waited 2.5 weeks once for my 3.5 inch diamond goby to reappear. i could not find it with a flashlight either

 

[RaisingTinyHobbits]

These are some pictures of the rock setup. It's an IM 25 Nuvo lagoon. I went fallow because my precious clownfish unexpectedly died and we couldn't pin point a reason so it was out of precaution. I did more than 76 days fallow before reintroducing new fish. There are some snails and a hermit crab in there and I was dealing with SCA dinos during that time so I ghost feed the tank to maintain the bacteria and was dosing phytplankton and Microbacter7 as part of the dino treatment. To begin with the reintroduced I just put those 2 fish and 2 pistol shrimp in with plans to add clownfish after getting some coral growth and habitat.

Have you checked Ammonia levels. I have a similar size tank and my one Goby would hide and I took out all the rock work and he literally jumped out of the tank and back into the tank after I removed the rock he was hiding under totally fine after months of coming out & he hid for over 1 month long.

Do you usually have a lid. Gobies can fly and will 100% jump out without a lid sometimes feet away.

That's encouraging. I see evidence of the pistol shrimp's construction, so I'm less worried about the goby and moreso for the firefish. I just double checked the ammonia and they're still at 0. I do normally have a lid on the tank, I just used pictures from the inital setup since they gave the best overall view of the rock structure.