After 50 years in the hobby the biggest mystery yet.

[Oldreefer44]

So I started my SW journey in 1974 with a couple of clowns. Have been through the typical journey fast forwarding to today with a 180 full of corals and fish. All of my fish are at least 3 years old with a clown now approaching 18. Until 8 weeks ago the inhabitants including a queen, emperor, purple. powder blue, solar, an anthias harem and my favorite, a Copperband Butterfly. About 8 weeks ago I noticed something amiss when they were all waiting in the front for their morning feeding. It dawned on me that my CBB was missing. I hunted everywhere and couldn't find it. We all have had situations where animals will disappear and then reappear a few hours or days later. So I waited and waited but after a week gave up. No way could I even consider another one considering the aggression from the current inhabitants. A new fish wouldn't stand a chance.
Fast forward to yesterday when I brought them lunch, right in front was my beloved CBB! I could not believe it. It is not a small fish. It did not have any sign of disease or fin damage. Since its reappearance it is acting perfectly normal. I have no explanation other than it decided to hide out for two months. For once, in this hobby, a mystery with a happy ending and no explanation.

 

[Nano_Man]

Sometimes this hobby makes you scratch your head but then a good ending. I bet you thought the cuc had eaten him . Great story with a happy ending

 

[Rene2br]

Wow! Better then the best Christmas present. Thank for sharing.

 

[JGT]

Great story. Maybe he went to Florida for the winter and is back now that it’s Spring.

 

[1112-425XL]

Sabbatical... everyone needs to get away once in awhile!

 

[PharmrJohn]

Dude. What was reefing like in the 70s? What kind of hardware did you have?

 

[randomfishdude]

Interesting. Had something simalar happen 4 weeks ago with a blue bottom fair wrasse of about 5 inches. Thought it jumped out. 3 weeks later came into my room and it was dead ontop of the lid. No clue how it got there.

 

[randomfishdude]

Dude. What was reefing like in the 70s? What kind of hardware did you have?

Flux capacitor and a carburetor.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Dude. What was reefing like in the 70s? What kind of hardware did you have?

There was no equipment. Basically a 20 gallon tank with IO salt. I feel sorry for the fish now that i think back on it.

 

[kevgib67]

I’ve read threads where fish went missing and then just reappeared but not nearly that long. I bet that just makes that fish just that much more special to you.

 

[Peair]

So I started my SW journey in 1974 with a couple of clowns. Have been through the typical journey fast forwarding to today with a 180 full of corals and fish. All of my fish are at least 3 years old with a clown now approaching 18. Until 8 weeks ago the inhabitants including a queen, emperor, purple. powder blue, solar, an anthias harem and my favorite, a Copperband Butterfly. About 8 weeks ago I noticed something amiss when they were all waiting in the front for their morning feeding. It dawned on me that my CBB was missing. I hunted everywhere and couldn't find it. We all have had situations where animals will disappear and then reappear a few hours or days later. So I waited and waited but after a week gave up. No way could I even consider another one considering the aggression from the current inhabitants. A new fish wouldn't stand a chance.
Fast forward to yesterday when I brought them lunch, right in front was my beloved CBB! I could not believe it. It is not a small fish. It did not have any sign of disease or fin damage. Since its reappearance it is acting perfectly normal. I have no explanation other than it decided to hide out for two months. For once, in this hobby, a mystery with a happy ending and no explanation.

How are you doing 44, it's good to see you are still in the hobby, I started freshwater in the mid 60's mostly breeding mollies, guppies and egg laying Discus so I could sell them to kids on the block for money, breeding was very popular back then, I did not see any saltwater till the 80's or I would have started earlier on saltwater, could you post a picture of your tank, thanks Pete.

 

[Mwatts12]

Wow. I have had fish disappear for a few days. Never that long.

 

[PharmrJohn]

There was no equipment. Basically a 20 gallon tank with IO salt. I feel sorry for the fish now that i think back on it.

And this is what I expected to hear. Amazing.

 

[BeanAnimal]

There were airstone skimmers (we called them foam fractionators back then) in the 70's
Some were even attached to the UGF standpipes. I can't find a photo... but back in the early 80s when I started looking into setting up a tank, most of the library books on the subject showed them. There were also whole books about foam fractionation for saltwater aquariums.