Missing Fish - How to find

[Jmunk]

So I have (had) two bartlett anthias swimming around and doing perfectly well.

Today (After my water change specifically) I noticed the female anthias is completely MIA.

Today was even feeding day, and when feeding, she never came out. There's no posible way she could've gotten sucked up with water changes. I just saw her yesterday.


How do I go about trying to see where she is.
If she's dead, and decaying, is that going to mess up my tank? How do I prevent this?

 

[rwb500]

in my experience, when a fish dies, it's just gone. The only times i've actually seen the dead fish is when the fish was not doing well in quarantine so i was checking on it frequently.

how big is your tank? how big is the fish? what kind of clean up crew do you have?

 

[Jmunk]

in my experience, when a fish dies, it's just gone. The only times i've actually seen the dead fish is when the fish was not doing well in quarantine so i was checking on it frequently.

how big is your tank? how big is the fish? what kind of clean up crew do you have?

90G

To be honest, I'm not sure, maybe 3 inches. My cleanup crew is an assortment of a load of hermit crabs, snails, shrimps, and anything else I've added in there over a time. There is a ton of little guys. Will they properly dispose of a body?

 

[rwb500]

3" is not a tiny fish but yes it will be gone. it probably already is gone. If I were you I would look carefully from outside the tank to make sure the fish is not alive and just hiding and maybe sick in a weird spot. But if you don't see it at all, don't go digging around. Your clean up crew will take care of it and you will likely never see any remnants of it.

 

[Shaummy]

Anthias in particular are really good at finding nooks and crannies in the rockwork to hide. Sometimes I have to get a flashlight out to find them every once in a while.

Hope your's is ok, but not coming out for feeding is not a good sign.

If you see your CUC congregating in a spot...could be cleaning up your fish.

 

[Dmorty217]

You said today was feeding day, are you not feeding them at least 3 times a day? Anthias need fed often, more so than other fish

 

[bwalders65]

^^^ Anthias are very active fish and should be fed. LFS told me for Bartlett Once a day should be a minimum. Also you should probably get 1 or 2 more anthias (females) which will help with their stress levels and make happier fish.

 

[tallball158]

If the fish died, your cuc would take care of it pretty quick. For your sake I hope it is hiding. Good luck!