OMG, I Found a Fish in my tank I have not seen in over a Year!!

[Paul B]

I am not sure of the time frame but about 2 or 3 years ago I bought a pair of Gecko Gobies

gecko gobie - AOL Image Search Results

search.aol.com

They would hide in the rocks so well that I never caught sight of an entire fish, just a fin or tail very occasionally.

I would "shoot" food near their cave and sometimes, in a split second see something dart after the food, so fast I wasn't sure if I was actually seeing a fish or just day dreaming about Christie Brinkley.

Maybe every 3 months I got almost a good view of one at night with a flashlight. (I had the flashlight, not the fish)

Then a year or more went by and I didn't see them but I kept shooting food there in the hope they were still in there.

Probably 6 months ago, I gave up trying to feed them as I was sure they were dead.

Just now, as I was waiting for a computer program to load (which never did, but it crashed my computer) I was following my Janss Pipefish as he snaked through the rocks and for a split second, I thought I saw the tail of one of those gobies.

Then I realized that I am old and was probably just hallucinating, (To much Grand Marnier last night) But I kept looking knowing I would only see bristleworms, which I did. Plenty of them.

Just as I started to look away, There he was. Or part of him, but they are a very un mistaking looking, very beautiful fish. I can't believe that fish was hiding, lurking in there all this time. He is twice the size I remember him and I can only assume his mate is also still in there someplace.

My tank is 6' long and I built most of the rock in very long pieces so that almost none of it actually touches the gravel but is suspended just above it. The entire underside of my reef is caves that all connect to one another so Godzilla can hide in there for a good two weeks and If I didn't see his wet footprints on my floor, I would never know he was there. ;Meh

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I worry if I don’t see a fish for a few weeks! Crazy they have been hidden for so long though

 

[moz71]

that is so cool to hear and now interested in these gobies!!!Hope you get a chance to see them more!!!

 

[this is me]

I am not sure of the time frame but about 2 or 3 years ago I bought a pair of Gecko Gobies

gecko gobie - AOL Image Search Results

search.aol.com

AOL???? Seriously Paul? lol

 

[MERKEY]

LOVE THIS!!

 

[Paul B]

I will never be able to get a picture of that fish. NeonRabbit, I once had a Cusk eel which is a bright yellow eel looking thing for 18 years. I never saw that entire fish except like this fish at night with a flash light.

I killed it by accident when I removed some rock to do some aquascaping and didn't know the stupid fish was in there.
I left it out of the water overnight. 18 years!!

 

[ReefGrammie]

That's a long time! My yellow WM goby is holed up with a pistol shrimp and I can go weeks without seeing the goby. I recently thought my clown goby had died because I hadn't seen it in a good month. I found the poor thing in the sump probably a month after that, alive and well. It had somehow jumped the overflow and took a wild ride down the plumbing into the sump!

 

[Paul B]

I also have a pistol shrimp in a hole with some mated Watchman gobies that I have not seen in months. But I still hear him.

 

[Ben9524]

Haha, that's hilarious. It's like when you find $20 in your pocket after doing laundry. It's awesome they've been in good health the whole time, maybe they just needed some "alone time" haha.

 

[PacoPetty]

That is awesome!

 

[Paul B]

Haha, that's hilarious. It's like when you find $20 in your pocket after doing laundry. It's awesome they've been in good health the whole time, maybe they just needed some "alone time" haha.

Yeah, once I went to a wedding and I found a comb in my suit pocket. I haven't had hair since I can't remember so It must be a very old suit.



I had a lot in the 70s

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Awesome! It's always cool to find a fish after a long time. I've got a swalesi basslet that I hadn't seen for at least 4-6 months... It wasn't unusual for him to hide for a month at a time, but this was the longest he'd gone hidden. I thought for sure he was dead and worm food, but then one day last year he popped out of the rockwork and swam around. He was still scarce most of the time, but came out to say "hi" occasionally. For the last month or so, he seems to have become an extrovert. He's out all the time now. LOL

 

[Larry L]

In my very first saltwater tank (29 gallon), I made a box out of black eggcrate to put against the bottom back of the tank to stack rock on (because I was cheap and didn't want to pay for more rock). It was about 5 inches tall and 5 inches deep and ran the width of the tank. I had a juvenile engineer goby that just disappeared at some point. About five years later he scared the crap out of me when I was breaking the tank down and found him - he was huge! I think he was hanging out inside the box, and eventually got too big to squeeze back out through the eggcrate. Obviously he was getting plenty of food down there.

 

[Terri Caton]

AOL???? Seriously Paul? lol

Hey, at least he knows how to use a computer!

Very cool.

 

[GK3]

I am not sure of the time frame but about 2 or 3 years ago I bought a pair of Gecko Gobies

gecko gobie - AOL Image Search Results

search.aol.com

They would hide in the rocks so well that I never caught sight of an entire fish, just a fin or tail very occasionally.

I would "shoot" food near their cave and sometimes, in a split second see something dart after the food, so fast I wasn't sure if I was actually seeing a fish or just day dreaming about Christie Brinkley.

Maybe every 3 months I got almost a good view of one at night with a flashlight. (I had the flashlight, not the fish)

Then a year or more went by and I didn't see them but I kept shooting food there in the hope they were still in there.

Probably 6 months ago, I gave up trying to feed them as I was sure they were dead.

Just now, as I was waiting for a computer program to load (which never did, but it crashed my computer) I was following my Janss Pipefish as he snaked through the rocks and for a split second, I thought I saw the tail of one of those gobies.

Then I realized that I am old and was probably just hallucinating, (To much Grand Marnier last night) But I kept looking knowing I would only see bristleworms, which I did. Plenty of them.

Just as I started to look away, There he was. Or part of him, but they are a very un mistaking looking, very beautiful fish. I can't believe that fish was hiding, lurking in there all this time. He is twice the size I remember him and I can only assume his mate is also still in there someplace.

My tank is 6' long and I built most of the rock in very long pieces so that almost none of it actually touches the gravel but is suspended just above it. The entire underside of my reef is caves that all connect to one another so Godzilla can hide in there for a good two weeks and If I didn't see his wet footprints on my floor, I would never know he was there. ;Meh

The last time you saw your fish was the last time I used AOL...a loooooong time ago.
Sorry I thought the AOL image search was classic.

 

[S.Pepper]

Then there is hope for that goby I haven't seen for 1.5 months. ;Hilarious Thx, Paul.

 

[Terri Caton]

Awesome! It's always cool to find a fish after a long time. I've got a swalesi basslet that I hadn't seen for at least 4-6 months... It wasn't unusual for him to hide for a month at a time, but this was the longest he'd gone hidden. I thought for sure he was dead and worm food, but then one day last year he popped out of the rockwork and swam around. He was still scarce most of the time, but came out to say "hi" occasionally. For the last month or so, he seems to have become an extrovert. He's out all the time now. LOL

I had one of those. Crazy shy fish. Unfortunately he decided tank life wasn’t worth living, jumped off the Red Sea bridge to be swallowed up by the air.

 

[madweazl]

I had a yellow watchman goby disappear only to pop our after at least four years when I tore the tank down when we were moving. It was 10-11 years old (well, I had it that long) at that point and I was blown away that it was still in the tank after such a long absence.

 

[ScottR]

I will never be able to get a picture of that fish. NeonRabbit, I once had a Cusk eel which is a bright yellow eel looking thing for 18 years. I never saw that entire fish except like this fish at night with a flash light.

I killed it by accident when I removed some rock to do some aquascaping and didn't know the stupid fish was in there.
I left it out of the water overnight. 18 years!!

You use AOL search? That’s really old school. I still use my AOL email address that’s 25 years old now - as my primary email address.

 

[mtfish]

Glad to know your fish is still hanging out.Cryptic fish are cool, if just for split seconds. I have a tiger goby that came in as a hitch hiker from some Florida live rock. Once in a blue moon I see it darting out grabbing some food floating by. Makes me happy when I see it.