2 well established fish MIA?

Lavey29 · Feb 17, 2023

So my indigo dottyback and yellow coris wrasse have gone MIA. I have had these fish for over 1.5 years. All my other fish seem normal. I know the wrasse can sand bury but he never does during the day. The dottyback has multiple small rock caves that he dwells in and moves sand around a lot. No sign of either anywhere since early this morning. Both seemed fine last night too.

I've checked my equipment and the essential fish keeping parameters and everything is normal. I don't feel any current in the water. I have heard an intermittent loud clicking sound in the evening in the rocks but sometimes the big snails shake and bang against something like the glass. My salinity is the same at 1.026. I only have test strips for ammonia and PH but I don't see anything abnormal. All my inverts seem fine.

These are 2 healthy reliable fish so I'm totally confused on where they might be. I have a tank lid and checked my return line. I have not added anything to the tank in about 2 months and that was only snails and crabs. I do add pods weekly for my mandarin and always worry about dumping that reef nutrition water in my tank.

This is wierd. Any suggestion? I've searched rock caves with a flashlight. My big rohmboid wrasse has gotten slightly more aggressive as he matured but he has never show any interest in these 2 fish at all.

AydenLincoln · Feb 20, 2023

Do you have a lid on the tank? Did they appear again? Anything that could of eaten them?

Lavey29 · Feb 20, 2023

AydenLincoln said:
Do you have a lid on the tank? Did they appear again? Anything that could of eaten them?

Yes always had a snug lid. Dottyback showed up after 2 days. Yellow wrasse still MIA. All the time I've had him he has never done this. Just sleeps at night. One thing I've noticed is all my fish have moved past their juvenile stage into adulthood and my big rohmboid wrasse struts around like a peacock now and makes moves to show he is tank boss. He never showed aggression towards the yellow coris but perhaps the coris is feeling nervous and hiding out. I hope he returns this week.