Flasher Wrasse...Gone!

[HarrisonMG]

I got a yellowfin flasher wrasse and had him in QT for a little over a month. He was doing great, always swimming around and eating well (although picky). He did not look sick in any way.

Well anyways I acclimated him to the DT (although they should be the same water) and the next day once the lights went on I saw he was happily swimming around like normal.

Except...that was the last day I saw him. I can't for the life of me figure out what happened. At first I thought he was just sleeping because the DT is on a different lighting schedule, but its been 3 days and now I don't know what to do!

I already looked at all the live rock from every angle with a flashlight and didn't see anything. If he's dead it doesn't matter much but WHAT IF HE GOT STUCK?

It would be a huge project to take out every pice of live rock and search for the little guy, would he still be alive anyways?

Thanks if you have any recommendations--is he dead for sure, or possibly alive?

Btw he did not jump out and I have a fully enclosed lid. Also checked overflow and filter socks just to be sure.

 

[Tripod1404]

Healthy fish dont get stuck.

 

[scuzy]

Did you leave him in a social acclimation box for a few days? This will get him socialize with tank mates.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[HarrisonMG]

Did you leave him in a social acclimation box for a few days? This will get him socialize with tank mates.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I didn't. I guess I should get one. Still, I can't figure who couldve given him a hard time...the Midas blenny is chill, there are two clowns, and a basslet with whom he was swimming around with not fighting. And the flame angel was in QT the whole time.

 

[Crooked Reef]

He may still be hiding even though he looked ok when he first went in. May have been looking for a place to hide.

 

[dabob79]

I had a yellow wrasse disappear for weeks, I thought for sure he was a goner. Then one day he just showed up again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[albano]

IME some wrasses will hide till they feel safer in a new tank... is your tank covered?

 

[FoxyFace]

Wrasses are notorious for giving you the slip and then reappearing days or weeks later. Hopefully, he's on a wrassy sabbatical and will be back soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HarrisonMG]

Yeah, hopefully he shows up! I especially wouldn't want to take out the rocks and suffocate him while looking for him...

And yes, my tank is covered 100%, and as I said I checked the overflow and filter socks just to make sure.

I guess in the interim, I am left to ask, is it more likely for a wrasse to die out of his hiding place under the sand/in a rock, or in the open (assuming he wasn't harassed)?

 

[Crooked Reef]

I guess in the interim, I am left to ask, is it more likely for a wrasse to die out of his hiding place under the sand/in a rock, or in the open (assuming he wasn't harassed)?

Flasher wrasses don't bury, they sleep in the rocks so you don't need to worry about decay under the sand from it. In my experience fish usually hide themselves when sick or stressed and with the wrasses tendency to build a slime cacoon at night, I doubt it would be in the open.

If it is dead, more than likely your clean up crew already took care of it unless you are registering an ammonia spike. Even if it is decaying in the rocks your biological filter may process the ammonia fast enough that you won't register it.

 

[hkgar]

Most likely just in hiding for awhile. I would bet he (she) will just pop up some day soon.

Something similar:
I got a 1.5 year old Bengal cat awhile back and he disappeared and I found him sleeping in the empty sump tank under my DT. He stayed there for about a week. Came out at night to eat and use his box.

 

[HarrisonMG]

Haha ok, t first I was positive he was dead, now I guess maybe not! While I find it suspicious that he was swimming around on day 2 and gone all the days after that, the rocks are large and have so many labyrinths within them I wouldn't be surprised if he was just in there.

I'll check for ammonia tomorrow, its always 0 so I guess I will know if it isn't....

I truly hate losing fish; I have had a rough few months--some banggais that wouldn't eat nothing, a firefish that was mudered by a blenny while on vacation, and the same blenny dying on a different vacation because someone fed him GFO; not to mention the scarlet cleaner shrimp that was doing amazingly well until the day before his QT period was up, when he passed for no reason I can fathom. (Oh boy!)

Well, thanks for your input!

 

[ca1ore]

You sure it didn't jump. I don't keep flashers anymore. No fish seems quite so motivated to leave the tank.

 

[HarrisonMG]

There is no way out, the top is sealed. Beside, I can see all the way around the tank and trust me that was the first place I looked