(Instantly) vanishing fish

[NigelRichardson]

Please help - absolutely no idea what I’m doing wrong

Tank has been running for just over a year and doing well. All parameters ok - clowns, yellow tang, blue tang, fox face, peppermint shrimp, chromis all doing well (ie I know my tank is not an ammonia factory)

I added 2 Orchid dottyback - stunning looking fish - and not the cheapest thing in town - last weekend after a 3+ hour acclimation from LFS 1.08 to my 1.025

Not more than 60 seconds later I have 1 x orchid dottyback swimming happily mid tank and the other has vanished. Literally never seen again.

This weekend added a banana wrasse and some peppermint shrimp. Shrimp all good the next morning (so I know it’s not an acclimation problem) - but banana wrasse nowhere to be seen !

I’ve got a big list of things that aren’t the problem - but does anyone have any ideas ?

LFS suggesting that everything likely ok and that fish are likely hiding in the rock work - but it’s only a 4ft tank so not an infinite number of places to hide - and we’re not talking fish that would typically hide away long term….

Any ideas welcome ? I know this hobby isn’t supposed to be easy - but right now it feels that flushing my money down the toilet would at least be a more interesting story to tell one day !

 

[RC Reefer 5184]

do you have a sandbed. Wrasses are known for hiding in the sand for awhile once introduced. Also from my experience dottybacks are very aggressive. So as far a your two did you notice any fighting between the two. Also the dottyback could have been picking on your new wrasse as well. So my guess would be both are in hiding right now. keep a close watch on aggression and good luck.

 

[NigelRichardson]

Sandbed is probably an inch deep, so possible... Haven't seen any aggression in anything - ever - so not sure what's going on.... Dottybacks were hanging out together very peacefully in LFS, though I know thats a very artificial environment. I'm hoping that they're still alive and well / just hiding, but I guess time will tell ! Thanks for input - maybe I just need to be more patient and have a bit more faith !

 

[MaxTremors]

Acclimating fish from 1.008 to 1.025 in three hours is way too fast, it should really be done over several days to a couple weeks (fish can go from high to low salinity faster than from low to high). I don’t know that I would buy fish from an LFS that keeps their salinity that low. It’s one thing to use hyposalinity in a hospital tank, it’s another to run your tanks that low to hide disease from potential customers. Plus they have to know that keeping their salinity that low is putting their customers and the fish in an uphill battle (if most people don’t QT, most aren’t going to slowly acclimate them in a separate tank over a couple weeks). All that said, the fish could be hiding, the wrasse especially (I’ve had wrasses hide for over a month). But yeah, I would stop doing business with a store that Kees their salinity that low, the only reason an LFS would do that is to hide disease from customers (disease that will immediately come back as soon as the fish is put in proper salinity).

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have to agree with @MaxTremors as to 1.008 being very suspect, and a burden to the customer. But that Banana Wrasse is in the sand, I can all but guarantee it. My 7” Yellow Headed Wrasse dives in just about the same time every night, and sleeps until morning. Yours is probably spooked and might hide out there for days.

 

[Jedi Knghit]

"I added 2 Orchid dottyback - stunning looking fish - and not the cheapest thing in town - last weekend after a 3+ hour acclimation from LFS 1.08 to my 1.025"

Am I reading that right? The fish came in 1.008 salinity water and you raised it to 1.025 in 3 hours? I don't have much experience with low salinity, but most posts I've read say to raise salinity slowly.

 

[Yazannreef]

Setup some Cameras to record video at night and see if your fish comes out.

 

[Karen00]

Are you sure it was 1.008 (10.6ppt) from the store? That seems really, really low to keep saltwater fish. That's low end brackish. Assuming the fish were healthy and not stressed from that level of salinity I read that salinity should not be raised more than 2 ppt per hour so this would be close to 2 days. It's possible these fish didn't handle the acclimation well but it's also possible they're in hiding so I agree to check when lights are out or use a camera to watch the tank at night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they're in hiding.

 

[Tamberav]

Please help - absolutely no idea what I’m doing wrong

Tank has been running for just over a year and doing well. All parameters ok - clowns, yellow tang, blue tang, fox face, peppermint shrimp, chromis all doing well (ie I know my tank is not an ammonia factory)

I added 2 Orchid dottyback - stunning looking fish - and not the cheapest thing in town - last weekend after a 3+ hour acclimation from LFS 1.08 to my 1.025

Not more than 60 seconds later I have 1 x orchid dottyback swimming happily mid tank and the other has vanished. Literally never seen again.

This weekend added a banana wrasse and some peppermint shrimp. Shrimp all good the next morning (so I know it’s not an acclimation problem) - but banana wrasse nowhere to be seen !

I’ve got a big list of things that aren’t the problem - but does anyone have any ideas ?

LFS suggesting that everything likely ok and that fish are likely hiding in the rock work - but it’s only a 4ft tank so not an infinite number of places to hide - and we’re not talking fish that would typically hide away long term….

Any ideas welcome ? I know this hobby isn’t supposed to be easy - but right now it feels that flushing my money down the toilet would at least be a more interesting story to tell one day !

1.08? To 1.025 can you clarify?1.008?

three hours is absolutely NOT enough time for hypo to normal. This needs to be brought up over a week or more.

Just because some fish survive this stress on their bodies does not mean all will.

While they could definitely be hiding and live. This could certainly cause damage to fish. I suggest not bringing fish up so fast and setting up a QT tank to bring them up slowly over a week in the future.

 

[hoytoyed]

Bet he meant 1.018 which is common in LFS’s

 

[Impala67]

Is it possible they jumped out of the tank? I’ve heard of some cases where the fish disappeared and a week later there cleaning around there tank and behind the stand are the fish!! Just a thought

 

[Lemons]

Is it possible they jumped out of the tank? I’ve heard of some cases where the fish disappeared and a week later there cleaning around there tank and behind the stand are the fish!! Just a thought

my 2¢ are either look for mr.crispy or they're hiding! I had a firefish disappear for three weeks. I labeled him MIA and continued on. but sure enough on week four there he was, floating in the middle of the tank like nothing happened lol

 

[davidcalgary29]

my 2¢ are either look for mr.crispy or they're hiding! I had a firefish disappear for three weeks. I labeled him MIA and continued on. but sure enough on week four there he was, floating in the middle of the tank like nothing happened lol

One of my orchid dottybacks disappeared into my Evo for ten days when I first put it into the tank! They do like to hide.

 

[NigelRichardson]

Likely my bad in relation to salinity. Definitely 1.008....

I thought the LFS said 1.08, but may have been 1.18...

Either way, 100% confident that that's not the problem - I've bought all of my other livestock from the same store and completed the same 3 hour drip acclimation and never had a problem before - even with my redline cleaner - who i understand is super-sensitive to salinity swings.

Lid was a new addition to the tank a couple of months ago, specifically to minimise any risk of carpet surfing (I'd never lost a fish to jumping, but didn't want to rely on the good luck to keep running)

No sign of the dottyback or wrasse today, but thanks for all input - I'll keep my fingers crossed that they're just hiding / having fun torturing me !

 

[Billdogg]

If they are not on the floor or in the sump, they are hiding. I had a Blue Star Leopard wrasse vanish when I added it to the DT after a several week stay in my QT. I gave it up for gone, got another and it did fine. Then one day about 6 weeks later, I all of a sudden had two! Either the second one was able to clone itself or the first one finally decided to come out of hiding.

 

[Timfish]

FWIW I've had fish hide for weeks and even months before being seen. I've also had fish die very shortly after being introduced and considering all the variables the best explanation was it had something wrong befroe purchase and the stress of being caught, bagged and acclimated to a new tank was enough to push it over the edge. Unfortunately about the only thing you can do at this point is be patient and hope. :-/

 

[JumboShrimp]

@Timfish and @Billdogg said it well.

I once added a Yellow Coris Wrass— MAN are they bright; can’t miss them. Well, like the OP, I searched the floor, overflow, etc., etc., when it went missing. I finally gave up. Then a good MONTH later I look up at my tank... there is Mr. Bright Yellow swimming around with the other fish like he never missed a beat.

 

[PeterEde]

Please help - absolutely no idea what I’m doing wrong

Tank has been running for just over a year and doing well. All parameters ok - clowns, yellow tang, blue tang, fox face, peppermint shrimp, chromis all doing well (ie I know my tank is not an ammonia factory)

I added 2 Orchid dottyback - stunning looking fish - and not the cheapest thing in town - last weekend after a 3+ hour acclimation from LFS 1.08 to my 1.025

Not more than 60 seconds later I have 1 x orchid dottyback swimming happily mid tank and the other has vanished. Literally never seen again.

This weekend added a banana wrasse and some peppermint shrimp. Shrimp all good the next morning (so I know it’s not an acclimation problem) - but banana wrasse nowhere to be seen !

I’ve got a big list of things that aren’t the problem - but does anyone have any ideas ?

LFS suggesting that everything likely ok and that fish are likely hiding in the rock work - but it’s only a 4ft tank so not an infinite number of places to hide - and we’re not talking fish that would typically hide away long term….

Any ideas welcome ? I know this hobby isn’t supposed to be easy - but right now it feels that flushing my money down the toilet would at least be a more interesting story to tell one day !

I put a yellowfin fairy wrasse in my tank and it too vanished for a few hours. Somewhere under the sand or one of the holes my Goby dug. It sleeps in a hole at night

 

[mackbamf]

I added some Gobies that ghosted me for about a week and a half. Now happily swimming all over the tank. Unless they jumped I would just give it time.

 

[NigelRichardson]

[UPDATE] - Of the more than a little surprising variety...

What's the longest that someone has had a fish living in their sump without realising / finding / catching it?

The (in)famous Orchid Dottyback that was added to the tank 14-Nov-21 and immediately vanished without a trace...

Did a big sump cleanup job last night - 6-Jan-21 - and guess who I found...

Swimming around happy as anything... A bit of a nightmare to catch as he was far goo good at navigating through the different sections of the sump, but now safe and sound back in the display tank...

53 days ?!? Can I claim some sort of record at least ?!?

And thats without me working out how on earth it even happened... I'll never understand how he managed to bypass the filter socks to get down there !