missing wrasse

[mogurnda]

My sixline wrasse came out of qt a few weeks ago, and settled into the 90 very nicely. It was quite outgoing and easy to spot. Now I have not seen the little guy for a few days. No bodies on the floor, my overflow is covered, but I checked there without luck. It seems unlikely it keeled over dead, because it was very active and hungry. My current idea is that the BTA ate the fish. Is that likely?

[gastone]

Dave,

 

IME my BTA has never eaten/attempted to eat any fish in the tank, including slow moving fish. To boot, they just don't seem sticky enough to do it.

 

I've got a sixline is my 30g frag tank, which is just egg crate and a few frags. Sometimes that thing will disappear and I'll look all over the tank and floor, only to find him swimming around a few hours later. In a larger setup I can see one "hiding" for days.

 

FWIW I recently found a bangaii that I lost about a year ago... he was a bit dried out.

 

G.

[bk_market]

I had a six line before and one day he just dissapear. I never be able to recover his body though. Sometime they just die inside the rock maybe at a place hard to see and then the hermit and snail finish off the body behind the rock before you even notice it.

[flowerseller]

Do you have a cat?

[traveller7]

I don't recall any healthy fish getting eaten by my BTAs and I have been known to have one or two over the years.

 

Hope the 6-line turns up. They are definitely jumpers, mine spent much time in the overflows, sump, etc.

[SteveD]

The only time I had a RBTA eat one of my fish was when my Akindynos caught my brand new 1.5 inch blue tang and feed him to the RBTA. The poor guy had been in the tank 2 minutes :(. Watching this happen was both amazing and depressing.

 

I suggest checking your overflow, floor, and sump. My sixline ended up in the overflow twice. It may look like he can't get in there, but he will. Also, if he died then inverts can break him down before you have a chance to notice he's dead. Some inverts will carry him back to an area in the rockwork that you cannot see.

Edited March 5, 2008 by SteveD

[mogurnda]

Do you have a cat?

Nope, and the dogs aren't allowed in there unescorted since they reprogrammed the aquacontroller.

 

Thanks for the input, all. Will look harder in the sump and fuge.

[jakaufman]

my sixline disappeared about a year ago.. i believe he either got crushed when we moved rock or just died in the rockwork somewhere. never found him :( but when he was gone the little feather dusters started to grow again (he ate them all before hah)

[Guest nickman]

wondering if your wrasse showed up. I bought a yellow wrasse a few weeks ago and the day after i got him he was MIA. I looked all over the floor, in the stand, sump, overflow box, under my bed (i have a weird dog, you never know), no sign of him. 4 days went by before I saw him!! i only have about 25 lbs of rock in the tank and I even sitrred up the sand a bit, never found him. only after his "nap" did i see him and now every once and a while he'll get up later than normal. im starting to worry less and less. he might still be in there. you never know.

 

-nick

[mogurnda]

No sign, but there are a lot of places to hide if it got into the overflow and down into the sump and/or fuge. The two large hairy crabs in the sump may have had a good snack. I'm still holding out some hope.

[HowardofNOVA]

IME my BTA has never eaten/attempted to eat any fish in the tank, including slow moving fish. To boot, they just don't seem sticky enough to do it.

 

Don't tell that to Jose "seantadez"!

I stopped over to visit him one day and when we walked about to the tank, a full size Powder Brown Tang I believe was almost completely swallowed by his baseball size Green BTA!!!

He said it was swimming around his tank, earlier that morning!

 

Remember, their animals, they have no considerations that the fish are not food!