Fish stuck in a Shell?

Salinas Hawk · Jul 18, 2014

I bought a Coral Beauty at my LFS. While the fish shop guy was trying to catch the fish, it darted into a large shell, looks like a 10 inch cerith snail shell, well kinda. I dont know what kind of shell it actually is. Anyway, the fish shop guy said I could take the fish home in the shell, and then return the shell the next time I came in. Well, the fish never came out of the shell. It's been 48 hours. I smelled the shell, it doesn't really stink, but it kinda smells like dirty ocean. Its fresh rodi water in my q tank, a ten gallon tank. I do the tank transfer method using one ten gallon and one 20 gallon.

The tank had no light the first day, then the second day it had on of those 38 par LEDs, white and blue.

I tried to lure it out with some tastes my sis shrimp, no luck.

I called my LFS, and the guy said not to break the shell. He said to wait until Mon, and if the fish didn't come out, bring in the fish and the shell for store credit or a refund. Cool LFS guy.

But should we have known better than to sell, buy a fish in a shell. Do you think its gonna come out? If it were my shell, I would break it, but the shell still belongs to the LFS, $19.99 they said, huh.

Anybody heard of such a thing?

I'd really appreciate any similar stories.

Bjaeger7 · Jul 18, 2014

He seems like he's just frightened since he's changing tanks. My six line wrasse hid in one of my rocks for 4 days when i got him. I was so scared i took the rock out of the water and he jumped out. I got him back in but he just hid again.

After a couple weeks he was out in the open every day. I would wait a couple more days, but if he still doesn't come out I'd take it back. You don't want a shell, you want a fish haha

Salinas Hawk · Jul 18, 2014

I hope you're right, Bjaeger7. Ive recently read that most fish cant of dont swim backwards, and they can just wedge themselves into shells and die. Ive even read that large, spiral shells shouldn't be in aquariums at all. Most of the stories about a fish stuck in a shell ive read were freshwater fish and Betas.

I feel like I should break the shell, but I probably wont. Hmmmm

Salinas Hawk · Aug 8, 2014

Sadly, the Coral Beauty died in the shell. I dont know if it got wedged in there, or if the fish just couldn't swim backwards... Or not clever enough to swim backwards. The shell started to smell after a few days, I think the fish suffocated... Not starved.

My LFS guy doesn't seem to believe the fish was stuck, but I returned the shell with dead fish inside, bad smell. LFS guy gave me store credit, cool.

tyler1503 · Aug 8, 2014

Sorry for your loss.
I have heard of this happening before, but the fish just swam out when he was comfortable in the new tank, it didn't die. I'll see if I can find the photo.