fish completely dissapeared

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bj5z25

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
50
Location
USA
last night i bought a lawnmower blenny and a royal gramma for my tank. They were bagged together and seemed fine until about 1/2 hour into the acclimation to the tank. I floated the bag in my water for 15 mins then added 1 1/2 cups of my water to the bag and let it sit for another 15 mins, when i came back to let them into the tank the gramma was laying belly up in the water and the blenny had sund into the corner of the bag and was looking ok. I let them out and as i did this the royal gramma swam reclessly to my live rock and behind it. He got him self settled in a small cave, then the blenny went to the same place and that was the last I ever saw the gramma. This morning I took all of the 60 lbs of lr and base rock I have and removed the baserock and put it into a trashcan. THen i searched the all the lr thoroughly and didnt find the gramma. Then I moved all of the lr into the front of my tank and sifted the sand where the lr sat, and didnt find anything. I SEARCHED EVERYWHERE! The Royal Gramma was nowhere to be found, it seemed as if he dissapeared, he left no traces at all, no dead body or anything. The blenny is ok, i think. He is hiding somewhere behind all my lr. Is it possible that something in my tank could have consumed my royal gramma, the blenny?the clowns?bristleworms? snails? Im really frustrated and scared that my whole tank will soon start to die off because of the grammas body. Please reply with any advice that may help me.

TIA
 
I have had fish do disappearing acts in virtually every tank I have set up. Next time give it 48 hours before you go taring the tank apart. Unless of course there is an obvious corpse and then remove.

Matter of fact one of the two damsels I put in my new tank disappeared on the second day. This was fairly serious because I was using live stock to cycle the tank. I looked in the tank for about ten minutes and then around on the floor for another five minutes and then headed down to the pub for a couple of beers. When I got home he was right there in the tank. I have no idea how he was able to stay out of site during my search as there was not much rock in the tank at the time.

Next time dint stress out right away you have a fair amount of time before the fish will start to pollute the tank if it is indeed laying in there someplace dead. Maybe keep a six pack in the frig for the next time this happens :lol:
 
revhtree said:
Also grammas will get in the smallest of holes in LR as well...

I agree they do hide in hole in the LR... Probably where it hid (from stress).

You may want to acclimate a little slower (float the bag for about 15-30 min.) by using 1/4 cup or 1/2 at most and then over an hours time add water to the bag in 10-15 min intervals.
 
IMO if a fish is gone in the tank then leave it gone... taking the tank down only brings on stress for the other fish.
I would say if its dead it was probably the acclimation. Read up on acclimation before your you next fish purchase.
Fast changes in salinity/SG and pH can kill fish..
 
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