Sick Yellow Box Fish? what do i do? Please help

[Sir Kon Salty Sox]

I read a thread yesterday that was attempting to “bust the myth” of box fish decaying in the tank. Separate from them releasing toxins which is a big risk, but once they have died the decaying fish was not more toxic than if a fish the same relative size were to die. Of course you don’t want a dead fish rotting in your tank so finding it is important. If you have cats however you may never know if it jumped. We had a freshwater frog disappear this week. Not on floor not in tank. I can only assume it was a cat snack; and is now a cat turd in the litter box…

I hope you find your fishy and it ends up making it. Continue to update the group, will help as much as possible. Might be good chance to rearrange some rockwork and go looking for anything that loooks off

 

[Sharkbait19]

Toxic or not you don’t really want a dead fish decaying in the tank - in my experience if a fish that was doing poorly suddenly disappeared, you will either find it dead or almost dead. Sorry.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I cannot find it anywhere!!! Just spent two hours moving around what rock I could to try and find it and I have no idea where it is.

As stated, soon these fish shutdown and end up on bottom of tank stiff as Much as I hate to say. Jay is correct, move rock, etc and find it as you dont want it expelling anything into your tank.
Its Not a water issue- just box and cowfish in general

 

[RugglesReef]

my wife and i moved literally every rock last night, ended up having to deconstruct the entire tank, which i was bummed cause i liked our aquascape and couldnt get it back the way it was. We moved every rock and twisted them around & cant find it anywhere. There are lots of little nooks in the rock & it was sooo tiny, we have two little dogs, im hoping it didn't end up on the floor and one of them ate it but of course a possibility... do i take all the rock/coral out tomorrow and try to rebuild and do one more check? of course i dont want a dead fish & more so a dead box fish in there but how many times do i rebuild to find this little fishy? where has it gone!?!?!?!

 

[vetteguy53081]

my wife and i moved literally every rock last night, ended up having to deconstruct the entire tank, which i was bummed cause i liked our aquascape and couldnt get it back the way it was. We moved every rock and twisted them around & cant find it anywhere. There are lots of little nooks in the rock & it was sooo tiny, we have two little dogs, im hoping it didn't end up on the floor and one of them ate it but of course a possibility... do i take all the rock/coral out tomorrow and try to rebuild and do one more check? of course i dont want a dead fish & more so a dead box fish in there but how many times do i rebuild to find this little fishy? where has it gone!?!?!?!

Look in the hole and under each rock as they eventually float and may be hidden within openings

 

[Sharkbait19]

If you have a strong cuc, it’s possible most of it got eaten already.

 

[RugglesReef]

If you have a strong cuc, it’s possible most of it got eaten already.

yea the two cleaner shrimp are aggressive & we have a bunch of hermit crabs and snails so thats definitely possible too.

 

[Sean Clark]

Do a quick Google search for yellow boxfish skeletons. They are very unique animals. Your clean-up crew would not be able to process the skeleton which should still be somewhere in the tank.

Here is an example:

 

[RugglesReef]

Forgot to post the final update. Sad to say the Boxfish died. I found it on the bottom of the tank. Everything else has been doing really well since which is good. Thanks for the help everyone!!

 

[Sharkbait19]

Sorry to hear. Glad everyone else is doing well.