jenwebber3
New member
Hi All,
My Royal Gramma has disappeared. Now, I know Grammas have sometimes been known to hide, for weeks, in the rocks. But, I had him for 2 months and he was out, active, eating like a Hoover. Then, poof! gone. (ok, he had been battling ich, so let's not say he was totally healthy) He is not on the carpet, in the sump, or in view. I've looked into every crack I can physically see with the lights on, lights off, and with a flashlight. Now, for the dumb question:
Is it necessary (b/c certainly not practical) to tear apart 29 pounds of live rock (in a 29-gal tank, mind you) and all my gorgeous coral to find what may be a dead fish? There's no room in the tank for me to maneuver this stuff, and Lord knows I'll never be able to get the rocks stacked again as I had them (and I LOVE my rock structure). The water doesn't have a dead fish smell, the ammonia and nitrates are currently fine. I mean, obviously, things being ideal, we don't want a fish rotting away in there. But I do have a lot of scavengers (though, oddly enough, I haven't seen any obvious frenzy activity in them as if they've found the mother lode). My other two fish are acting like nothing is wrong. He's been out-of-sight for two days.
I do worry about ammonia, because my peppy shrimp are super-sensitive to it. But if I keep an eye on the water and the nutrient/free radical levels, can I let him become part of the cycle (if, that is, he really is toast)?
sorry for the wordy post, but thanks for the thoughts!
My Royal Gramma has disappeared. Now, I know Grammas have sometimes been known to hide, for weeks, in the rocks. But, I had him for 2 months and he was out, active, eating like a Hoover. Then, poof! gone. (ok, he had been battling ich, so let's not say he was totally healthy) He is not on the carpet, in the sump, or in view. I've looked into every crack I can physically see with the lights on, lights off, and with a flashlight. Now, for the dumb question:
Is it necessary (b/c certainly not practical) to tear apart 29 pounds of live rock (in a 29-gal tank, mind you) and all my gorgeous coral to find what may be a dead fish? There's no room in the tank for me to maneuver this stuff, and Lord knows I'll never be able to get the rocks stacked again as I had them (and I LOVE my rock structure). The water doesn't have a dead fish smell, the ammonia and nitrates are currently fine. I mean, obviously, things being ideal, we don't want a fish rotting away in there. But I do have a lot of scavengers (though, oddly enough, I haven't seen any obvious frenzy activity in them as if they've found the mother lode). My other two fish are acting like nothing is wrong. He's been out-of-sight for two days.
I do worry about ammonia, because my peppy shrimp are super-sensitive to it. But if I keep an eye on the water and the nutrient/free radical levels, can I let him become part of the cycle (if, that is, he really is toast)?
sorry for the wordy post, but thanks for the thoughts!
