Watchman goby missing

ReeferRubio

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So I bought a watchman goby and candy cane pistol shrimp about a week and a half ago drip acclimated them for an hour about 3X the volume of water that they came home with. Everything looked and seemed good he ate was swimming around and perching on my cord for my power head went to bed that night and haven’t seen him sense. The pistol shrimp has been busy making a tunnel system under my center rock and I see him every now and then but definitely hear his pistol going off at night. Been testing my water to see if there has been an ammonia spike because I think he’s dead somewhere and the water is testing fine. I’ve also looked around the tank to see if he was a jumper but nothing as well. Just curious how long other people’s gobies have gone missing if even at all and did you find them dead or alive and also if they did die where did you find them? Are there any tricks to luring him out if he’s alive? TIA for any info.
My tanks has a divinci and a orange storm clownfish about 4 months old, 15 or so blue leg hermits 2 trochus snails and just added the watchman and pistol shrimp and the tank is a 46 gallon bowfront with live sand and about 45lbs of live rock and a hob filter
 

fachatga

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Yeah. They don’t move much during the day. He can be in a burrow all day you just can’t see or inside your rock. Especially new they can disappear for a while.
 

agame2021

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Turn off power heads and check the inside… I had a foxface rabbitfish 2 days since putting him in my tank. Went to bed woke up and found him missing. Looked everywhere around the tank…. Ended up getting sucked into the powerhead during the night and he was stuck where you couldn’t see him unless the powerhead was off.
Then there was a huge spike!
 
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ReeferRubio

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Yeah. They don’t move much during the day. He can be in a burrow all day you just can’t see or inside your rock. Especially new they can disappear for a while.
I’ve read that in some different places I guess my concern is I haven’t seen him eat
 
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ReeferRubio

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Turn off power heads and check the inside… I had a foxface rabbitfish 2 days since putting him in my tank. Went to bed woke up and found him missing. Looked everywhere around the tank…. Ended up getting sucked into the powerhead during the night and he was stuck where you couldn’t see him unless the powerhead was off.
Then there was a huge spike
Turn off power heads and check the inside… I had a foxface rabbitfish 2 days since putting him in my tank. Went to bed woke up and found him missing. Looked everywhere around the tank…. Ended up getting sucked into the powerhead during the night and he was stuck where you couldn’t see him unless the powerhead was off.
Then there was a huge spike!
Thanks for the heads up I turn my power head off for feeding so the next time I do that I’ll take it out and apart to see if there’s anything there
 

New&no clue

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I had my goby hide for almost two weeks, but then he showed up one day. Don’t worry he is getting food. I read another build thread of some who hadn’t seen his for over a year and then it showed up again. IMO the worst thing you can do is go looking for it. Just let it get comfortable with the tank. Keep testing ammonia just in case, but other then that let nature take its course.
 

BroccoliFarmer

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I had the same happen with a high fin. Actually bought a yellow watchman because I thought I lost the high fin. Now the high fin pops out every now and then and lived in the same burrow as the watchman.
 
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ReeferRubio

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I had my goby hide for almost two weeks, but then he showed up one day. Don’t worry he is getting food. I read another build thread of some who hadn’t seen his for over a year and then it showed up again. IMO the worst thing you can do is go looking for it. Just let it get comfortable with the tank. Keep testing ammonia just in case, but other then that let nature take its course.
Yea that’s what I’m trying to do is not go looking for him but man it’s hard you know
 
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ReeferRubio

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I had the same happen with a high fin. Actually bought a yellow watchman because I thought I lost the high fin. Now the high fin pops out every now and then and lived in the same burrow as the watchman.
That’s awesome!!!
 

sfin52

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I put in a watchman goby and it disappeared for 2-3 months. My wife found it in the back left corner of our tank. Look along thr back of the tank. They will hide in some crazy spots. IMHO they are one of the fish that is least likely to jump. They dive to a burrow.
 
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stickyicky

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I just got a new goby around 2 weeks ago and for the first day he was not swimming too much but out and about and since then he’s vanished. A week ago I saw his head poking out behind my rock structure so I haven’t been to worries just buried some pellets in the sand for him to find eventually hopefully he will come out one day he’s very beautiful
 

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