Anybody have missing fish reappear?

[fishfreak2009]

So my firefish and my neon goby have both been missing for just over a month. I did a water change yesterday and lo and behold both of them came out to eat today, looking better than ever.

I also had a cleaner shrimp pop out of the rocks! I haven't seen him since I set the tank up about a month and a half ago. He's much larger than the last time I saw him. I thought the triggerfish ate him when I first added him, but nope he's happy as can be.

 

[michellejy]

When I had my 120 gallon, I added a yellow watchman goby...and pretty much never saw him again. I just assumed he had died and been eaten by the clean up crew. Then one day (I think several months later), I was doing something in the sump, and he swam out from behind some live rock I had in the refugium. Based on how everything was plumbed and the fact that there was no lid on the refugium, I have genuinely no idea how it even got in there safely, let alone survived without any direct feeding.

 

[ca1ore]

Cryptic fish will do this all the time. I spot my diamond watchman goby every few weeks. Had a golden dwarf angel years ago that appeared every few months.

 

[ThRoewer]

Yes, I had fish that were MIA or AWOL for a while and later reported back to duty.

The longest was a 10 mm Marine Beta who went MIA for several years and showed back up as a 120 mm adult:
She was with her siblings in a small grow out tank connected to my big display then. She must have gone through the overflow and then through a 5 m aptasia infested hose that ended right above the anemone of my large clarkii clowns. Those clowns would eat large shrimp and the small bycatch gobies whole - a tiny marine betta baby would have been just a little snack.
So I wrote her off as either eaten by the aptasia or the clarkii. On top of that there was a large pair of marine betta in that tank as well.
About two or three years later, after I cleaned the back glass (this was the sump tank of a room divider) a marine betta looked at me that was somewhat too small for what should have been in there. A quick check revealed that there were two more - the original pair I put in there, so this one was an extra. At first I thought a larva from the pair in the upper tank somehow survived without rotifer feedings and special tank.
But then I remembered the little guy that went MIA and it dawned on me that she must have made it through all obstacles and dangers and survived long enough in that rather aggressive sump tank to grow to a respectable size. It seems due to the size of the tank (1.5 m x 0.8 m footprint) the two females got along and formed a little harem with the male.

 

[nuttyd]

Yep. Caught a conch cardinalfish a while back. Put him in and he disappeared for four months. Then came out like nothing happened as social as ever.

 

[BeanMachine]

I had a flasher wrasse living in my sump for several months before I noticed it down there during some tank maintenance.

 

[davocean]

I once had a 4-5" Steinitz goby that vanished completely for over a year, it wasn't until I did a swap I found it in a rock, totally fine.
Funny thing is he went into a holding bin during that swap, had nowhere to hide, guess he lost his fear, cause as I put him in the next tank thinking I'd never see him again, again, he was suddenly out and about all the time

 

[Ross33]

I had a neon dottyback live in one of the tiny back chambers in an old bio cube for months. Found him one day cleaning it out.

 

[scooter31707]

Yep, had a wrasse in the sand for almost 2 months.

 

[arashsheikhpoor]

Happens all the time with my wrasse.

 

[brett559]

Had a Regal Angel jump. Was so so sad. He jumped behind the tank and my tank was flush against the wall. For weeks, I kept hoping he'd just appear one day. He didn't...

I love these stories of fish survival.