Time to worry? Added wrasse a month ago

bjmartie

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Is it time to worry yet?

I added a blue star leopard wrasse right at a month ago. Seen her eating in store and she looked fine. Added her to my tank and sheborrowed in the sand within second and haven't seen hersince.

Ammonia is reading zero but don't know if my pistol shrimp would of gotten a hold of her or not.
 
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bjmartie

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Going on 6 weeks now and still haven't seen him. I did notice pod population has dwindled, not sure if it was him. Also have a clouded wrasse.
 

Petcrazyson

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Going on 6 weeks now and still haven't seen him. I did notice pod population has dwindled, not sure if it was him. Also have a clouded wrasse.
It may be him. He could just be so elusive you don’t see him. Could you post a FTS to see how the rock work is?
 
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bjmartie

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Here you go. Yeah im always looking just never seen him. Just added more pods too, so hopefully he is eating them
 

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odariel

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Honestly, 6 weeks and u have not see it... its a goner. You should have seen it within the first 2-3 days, a week max...
 
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bjmartie

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Honestly, 6 weeks and u have not see it... its a goner. You should have seen it within the first 2-3 days, a week max...
I seen a lot of post saying it will give for up to a month, so 2-3 days? That's quiet a big difference.
 

odariel

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in my experience (i have several wrasses, including this one) it takes a couple of days for them to go out... basically they are hungry and start looking for food. And if he was eating microfauna you would see it running around... a month and a half without ever seeing it?.. sorry, its gone. Probably on the first 48hs...
 

odariel

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Anyway, as u probably know they are delicate animals (they are not your tipycal damsel or clownfish, nearly undestructible), that stress easily and have a relatively high mortality rate... wrasses are famous for this... radiant wrasses, anampses, macropharyngodon... all ship poorly and stress out pretty easily.. once stablished on yoir tank they are pretty hardy, but the beginnings are key...
 
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bjmartie

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I got it from a LFS where it was fat and watched it eat. I dripped acclimated it and watched it go right into hiding as soon as I added him in. I've never seen my pods really start going missing, until after I got him. Then reading where people post having their leopard grasses hide for weeks and sometimes months, I have hope he is still around.
 

ilikefish69

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I have introduced a melanarus (instantly okay), yellow coris (slept for 4-5 days) and a leopard (slept for 2-3 days) but never anything month + ...

Are there other aggressive fish in the tank ? Maybe set up a camera at night and see if it's coming out at night, but a month is an awfully long time for it to hide.
 
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bjmartie

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Coral beauty, clouded, goby and two clowns. None are aggressive at all. Coral beauty and clouded wrassed seem to be best friends and clowns only mess with me if I stick my hand in the tank.
 

odariel

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I have had new wrasses hide for over a month.....if I had to guess he is fine. He might be coming out at night....which I have also seen with new wrasses.
wrasses are notorious for having an internal clock that tells them when to go to bed. i had wrasses that the first weeks go to bed in the middle of the day, but they are definetely not nocturnal animals... unless u have quite a lot of ambient light once the aquarium lights go off, there is no way he is up and about at night.. and much less feeding on anything...
 

landlubber

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Honestly, 6 weeks and u have not see it... its a goner. You should have seen it within the first 2-3 days, a week max...
While I agree the prospects aren't good on a 6 week disappearance saying a week is the max is completely wrong.
my 5 year old Melanurus wrasse was under the gravel for 23 days before emerging and looked like it hadn't missed a meal. I have also had a Black Leopard and a Blue Star that both were 2 weeks before they joined the fold. Just because a fish isn't out while you can see it doesn't always mean its toast.
 

odariel

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@landlubber Well of course i only speak of my actual experiences. Never had a wrasse buried for that long. Actually, i never had a wrasse that actually lived that took more than 5 days to appear. (again, in my personal experience) it would be fantastic if his appears, for me it has never took that long.. 23 days under gravel is A LOT by all standards.. actually 23 days for a fish to go without eating is quite an achievement. It is very unusual, just saying, lets not make the unusual something probable, because it is not.

And actually his fish has been gone for 42 days... almost double the time yours took..
 

landlubber

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Here you go. Yeah im always looking just never seen him. Just added more pods too, so hopefully he is eating them
keep in mind your system can only support so many pods and the majority of reefers never add them to begin with yet they still manage to populate even through dipping corals.
 
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