Pintail fairy wrasse hiding or dead?

[bp908]

I know this has been discussed several times, but would appreciate some wrasse experts weighing in on my situation.

I have a pintail fairy wrasse I have not seen since placed in the DT on Saturday 5 days ago. He was an active swimmer in QT for over a month, and in a 20L QT with an exquisite and a Bella goby which worked fine. While the exquisite is definitely bigger and more dominant of the two, he was swimming and eating well in QT. I did not use an acclimation box to add to the DT as I only had a few peaceful fish already in, the only wrasse being a line spot flasher (others were small foxface, royal gramma, yellow watchman goby and 2 clowns).

I have a reefer 525 with an aquascape that is not easy to move, but can be if absolutely necessary. At what point would you all recommend actively searching for him, if at all? He is under 3” in size, so at the moment I am leaning to not look at all and maybe adding an ammonia badge to check for a spike (though not sure that would even happen given his size to my system).

Any words of encouragement or advice is appreciated! All my other fish are doing well including the newly introduced fairy wrasse and goby, but it’s very frustrating to spend 6 weeks getting this fish fat and healthy only to have him disappear immediately in the DT!

 

[blaxsun]

Since these don't bury, chances are it's hiding in a cave somewhere. They will often find a niche or crevice under a rock somewhere and dig out just enough sand to hand under it out of sight.

It may also be coming out at night or when you're not present in the room. You might want to go around with a flashlight and check some spots you wouldn't think he'd be hiding. I wouldn't be entertaining ripping out your aquascape just yet (even if he perished a single dead fish is unlikely to really have any adverse effect on your tank).

Wrasses can be... mysterious. I've had more than a handful just disappear without a trace (only to find a mummified corpse hiding in a corner somewhere many months later). Have you checked your overflow?

 

[bp908]

Since these don't bury, chances are it's hiding in a cave somewhere. They will often find a niche or crevice under a rock somewhere and dig out just enough sand to hand under it out of sight.

It may also be coming out at night or when you're not present in the room. You might want to go around with a flashlight and check some spots you wouldn't think he'd be hiding. I wouldn't be entertaining ripping out your aquascape just yet (even if he perished a single dead fish is unlikely to really have any adverse effect on your tank).

Wrasses can be... mysterious. I've had more than a handful just disappear without a trace (only to find a mummified corpse hiding in a corner somewhere many months later). Have you checked your overflow?

Thanks for the tips. Still no sign of him, including in the overflow and sump, but I do have a lot of caves in my aquascape by design. I fear that maybe one of the fish I didn't suspect (Royal Gramma?) bullied him when I wasn't looking.

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks for the tips. Still no sign of him, including in the overflow and sump, but I do have a lot of caves in my aquascape by design. I fear that maybe one of the fish I didn't suspect (Royal Gramma?) bullied him when I wasn't looking.

Royal grammas can sometimes be *****. They're also frequent spelunkers so it could be the wrasse is hiding and doesn't want to venture out with the gramma lurking.