Hide-and-go-swim: How long was your fish "missing" before it reappeared in your tank?

[PotatoPig]

In perhaps a more unusual case:

I have recently had a coral go missing.

I had a War Coral approximately the size of a golf ball that has disappeared without a trace. My suspicion is that my engineer goby buried it, but from an investigation of the sand around where it was last seen it doesn’t appear to be in the vicinity…

 

[AmateurAlchemist]

Had a model citizen Yellow Coris Wrasse vanish one day. The tank had a tightly fighting lid and no chance of anything in the tank being big enough to eat it. I moved the tank a few months later and never found a trace of it.

 

[Lasse]

My wife says that I with meaning only chose fishes that can disappear for a month because I always be glad when I found them. some of my fishes has take years before they dare to show up regularly in bright daylight.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[mfinn]

I had a Swiss Guard Basselet go missing for 5-6 months in my 240. I thought he was dead, but one day out of the blue, I saw it for a few seconds. From that point on, I made a point to look for it in the same area. I would see it maybe once every 2-3 weeks. Most disappointing major fish purchase ever.

 

[Paul B]

This happens to me all the time. Right now I have a small red fish in the back of my tank that I don't remember ever buying and may have come as a baby.

I think I have a pair of Gecko gobies that I only see a glimpse of very rarely in the back. I may have them 5 years and "never" saw the entire fish.

I once had a brutlyd or cusk eel for 18 years and maybe saw it 6 times and only at night using a flashlight. (I had the flashlight, not the fish) and he was 6" long.

I accidently killed it by removing a large rock and didn't know he was in there.

I have 40 or 50 fish and couldn't name them because most of them are small and hide in the multitudes holes and tunnels I have throughout my 6' tank.

I can look for an hour for a few days in a row and not see something only to appear near the front glass smiling at me.

 

[Lasse]

Five year after last introduction of living rocks in my old aquaria I suddenly saw an alien in my aquaria and it was not small! Compare with the blenny in the right part of the screen. I did not know that I have miss this Teddy Bear crab



Sincerely Lasse

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Yellow watchman goby- about an inch. Got from TSM aquatics in NJ. Didn't see him for months and figured he just died and then one night he was swimming at the top of the tank. Great. Then a few weeks later, he was out during day and my royal gramma (that is kind of a jerk but not too bad) was swimming around with the goby in its mouth. My 5 year old son was the one that saw it first. That's when I put him in the sump for another 3 months or so to be left alone. Now he is a little larger and has his cave and peeks out daily, and goes for food at every feeding. Cannot believe he survived.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yellow watchman goby- about an inch. Got from TSM aquatics in NJ. Didn't see him for months and figured he just died and then one night he was swimming at the top of the tank. Great. Then a few weeks later, he was out during day and my royal gramma (that is kind of a jerk but not too bad) was swimming around with the goby in its mouth. My 5 year old son was the one that saw it first. That's when I put him in the sump for another 3 months or so to be left alone. Now he is a little larger and has his cave and peeks out daily, and goes for food at every feeding. Cannot believe he survived.

That is crazy that he survived something like that!