Finding Blue Fish

[CrayolaViolence]

My tank isn't all that large (80 gal) and I had a decent sized blue chromis who seems to have disappeared without a trace. I mean NOTHING, no floating fish, no left overs. I've taken all shrimp (except the ghost shrimp) crabs, hermit crabs, serpent stars, etc, out of my tank, so the only possible things left to eat the body would be two coral banded shrimp and some narcissus snails, but you'd think I'd at least have seen *something*. But he's definitely gone and not in the sump (I checked). Has anyone had a fish just vanish before. He wasn't prone to jumping and hid in the rocks most of the time, so it took me a couple of days to realize he was gone. I only have two yellow tangs and two mandarin in the tank so I don't think one of them ate him and they all got alone. He usually stuck to himself though.

 

[Nina51]

if it died for whatever reason, your cb shrimp would have made quick work of the carcass. i have read of instances where cb shrimp have even taken small, slow moving fish.

your tangs must be small. i'm surprised you are able to keep 2 in a tank this size.

 

[ca1ore]

I'd say that 75% of the fish I've lost in my reef tanks have disappeared without a trace. If you have a decent amount of live rock, there are invariably a whole lot of organisms that will reduce a fish carcas extremely quickly.

 

[civics14]

i've lost one fish since the start of my tank 1.5 years ago, i'm sure the clean up crew took care of him over night without me even knowing until the next day he was missing.

 

[bat21]

I've lost a few. Either they float up and get stuck on the overflow, or they vanish without a trace.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

I expected it to get stuck in the over flow or wind up in the sump if it died but I guess the CB or narcissus snails ate him. Never acted sick either. Just vanished.
I guess my tangs may be small. But it's not like I have a lot of fish. i mean, the tank s 48 inches long, 24 front to back and about 14 deep with 12 inches of water. The tangs are between 3.5-4 inches in size. They are just plain yellow tangs and seem to have more than enough room to swim.

As for blue fish, he wasn't big, but he was by no means slow. Lightening fast if anything.

 

[Sk8r]

That's why you have a CUC: any fish that dies never floats: it dissolves and is eaten.