Help! Goby missing for 3 weeks

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

I have a hi fin red banded goby in my 55 gallon FOWLR that has been missing for about 3 weeks. It may be a bit longer now. He was in their with a pistol shrimp (which to my knowledge he had not bonded with yet), a flame angel, a pair of snowflake clowns, and a molly. The molly and the goby were added first. The molly was a bit of a bully surprisingly but when the flame angel and clowns were added it kind of chilled out. The longest my goby has gone missing for is about 1 week. The last time I saw him, he had moved to a different rock and was hiding under it. Is it possible that he is alive and only coming out to eat when I am not around? If this is unlikely, do I need to find him? If he is in the spot I suspect then it would be very difficult to tear down the rocks to fish him out.

 

[pa1ntbru5h]

Test your water for Ammonia. That will allow you check if in the case he is dead, you can see if it's poisoning your tank or not.
If there is no ammonia, I wouldn't bother tearing down rockwork to look for it.
If there is ammonia, then yes it's likely it died and it's time for a water change.

 

[Liquid360]

These guys are jumpers. I found two dead diamond gobys behind my corner tank

 

[AndrewNC]

I had a watchmen years ago that I thought was dead and popped up a few weeks later. My current diamond goby was one of the first additions. A few months ago I added a kole tang and he bullied my goby big time. I didn't see him for about a week and he turned up fine but I have to hand feed him because the kole tang won't allow him to eat. My yellow tang actually tries to protect my goby. Hopefully with the upgrade from a 90 to a 240 the kole will give this guy a break. Now to answer your question lol. I would say maybe. When you're feeding look for him to pop up somewhere

 

[AndrewNC]

These guys are jumpers. I found two dead diamond gobys behind my corner tank

I always hear gobies are jumpers but all the gobies I've ever have never passed the half mark of the tank

 

[Aspiring Tank Guru]

I had a watchmen years ago that I thought was dead and popped up a few weeks later. My current diamond goby was one of the first additions. A few months ago I added a kole tang and he bullied my goby big time. I didn't see him for about a week and he turned up fine but I have to hand feed him because the kole tang won't allow him to eat. My yellow tang actually tries to protect my goby. Hopefully with the upgrade from a 90 to a 240 the kole will give this guy a break. Now to answer your question lol. I would say maybe. When you're feeding look for him to pop up somewhere

I always look for him when I feed. I even drop food right next to the entrances to the rock where I think he's hiding. I am going to order from live aquaria/divers den this week and it is very hard for me to have the time to buy new fish so I was wondering if I should get another goby or not.