RBTA Disappeared

[smilesatyoualot]

Woke this am to find my 1.5" RBTA gone. I cannot find him anywhere. Was wondering what would eat him. There are no signs of fowl water or a dying anemone. Found the lg emerald sitting under the anemone rock. RBTA was doing well...eating and never moved from its original resting spot, but hadn't grown in the 1 1/2 months of having him. Sometimes he would deflate and you could see a pin hole with his mouth open, but would be back to normal with a tight mouth in a few hours.

Just added: 6-line, manderian, carpenters wrasse and green clove polyp (which still hasn't opened).

Have: flame angel-blue tang-purple firefish-reg firefish-2 kaudern cardinal-2 true percula clowns-2 blood shrimp-2 peppermint shrimp-1 lg emerald crab-1 med emerald-1 sm emerald-2 fighting conch-red and blue crabs-banded coral shrimp-different snails.

75 gal that is 7 months old. PH 8.0-8.2/alk 8-12/phos .20-cal 500-nitrite 0-nitrate slight trace-iodide .06-.08-silicate 0-ammonia 0 and salinity was low yesterday at 1.022 so I added salt yesterday and now 1.024. Temps 78 night and 81-83 day.

Any ideas? Sorry so long.

 

[a4twenty]

probably just hiding and will pop up somewhere else in the tank. what are you feeding him?

 

[smilesatyoualot]

So far, I haven't seen him...maybe he is just hiding somethere good. Figured he was eaten, just because the water didn't fowl.

I feed him shrimp from grocery store, stored frozen, Formula One marine pellet and prime reef flakes. I feed the whole tank a variety of frozen brine, mysis and marine cusinine. Also every other day....PhytoMax.

Will let you know if I find him. Thanks!

 

[OrionN]

Sometime BTA go into hidding in the middle of the reef structure.

 

[a4twenty]

i just wanted to make sure you were feeding him, when you said he hadn't grown i got a little worried. mine has trippled in size and split twice in 2 months.

one point of concern i didn't notice before was a temp fluctuation of 78 - 83 ?? could be to much for many inhabitants.

 

[triggerfish1976]

I agree, it is probably hiding. When these guys move they shrink up to almost next to nothing and can squeeze through the smallest cracks in your rock and tend to go missing for a few days as they are moving around.

 

[Skateboarder]

I would check behind the rocks.