Moved rocks... Fish missing

Red2143 · Jun 21, 2023

I have a 1 year old tank and currently dealing with a dino problem. I took out the rocks to vaccum the sand thoroughly (didn't seem to work after a few days it's all back). The problem is my mccosker wrasse is now hiding and not coming out to eat. Before the cleaning this fish was always visible.

Is there anything I should do? I don't want it to starve to death. It's been 3 days since I've seen it

vetteguy53081 · Jun 21, 2023

Red2143 said:
I have a 1 year old tank and currently dealing with a dino problem. I took out the rocks to vaccum the sand thoroughly (didn't seem to work after a few days it's all back). The problem is my mccosker wrasse is now hiding and not coming out to eat. Before the cleaning this fish was always visible.

Is there anything I should do? I don't want it to starve to death. It's been 3 days since I've seen it

It can go several days without food and assure it didnt
a- jump
b- go into overflow area and end up in sump
c- wedge itself under a rock or opening in a rock

Red2143 · Jun 21, 2023

Can a fish wedge itself so badly that it needs to be manually extracted? I don't think a or b happened

Anemone_Fanatic · Jun 21, 2023

Just let it be. It'll come out, or it won't. Fish don't readily starve like mammals do, it can go a week or more without food if it isn't spending energy swimming.

Are you sure it wasn't hiding in the rock when you took it out of the tank? If that happened, it might have dried out or gotten squished. My advice would be the same; keep feeding the tank and wait for it to come out. Good luck!