Disappearing 6-Line Wrasse

Rcpilot

Rcpilot

Reef enthusiast
My 6-line, that I just bought last week, is GONE.:grumble:

I have NO idea where it went. I am blaming the DAMsel.

I woke up this morning and turned off the powerheads for feedin' time. No sign of the wrasse. So I figured -- no biggie, he's a late sleeper--my wife calls me on my cell at like 2pm--still no sign of Striper. :shock:

I came home and took EVERY stinking rock out of my tank. EVERY ONE.

Cracker (goby) is there. Dory (DAMsel) is there. No sign of Striper.

So, I start looking on the floor. Perhaps we got ourselves a carpet surfer? ZIP, NADDA--GONE!! Can't find him anywhere. He's not in the tank and he's not in the refugium. Can't find him on the floor. When I took the rocks outta the tank, I turned each one over several times to see if he was wedged up into a crack of hole. ZIP, NADDA -- GONE!!

I figured while I had all the rocks sitting in a rubber maid bin that I'd go ahead and catch that nasty DAMsel with a net. HAHA!! Nowhere to hide B*TCH!! Took me a couple minutes to catch her. Off to the LFS I went with a DAMsel in a bag. Got $3 store credit for it.

Picked up a little yellow polyp for $8. It's been in there for a month. Figured that since nobody wanted it, I'd rescue it and give it a good home.

Anybody seen my 6-line? :12:
 
I have looked EVERYWHERE. Under the tank. Behind the stand. 8' away under the couch. In all the shoes that are piled up in a basket next to the door. Under the coffee table. I started at the tank and worked my way out in a 10' radius. Nothing.

Looked inside the refugium AGAIN, although I have no idea how he'd get in there. He'd have to jump out of the tank at a 48.7 degree angle and hold a parabolic arc for exactly .76 seconds at 13MPH velocity and then pull off a triple backflip to land in that refugium. This is assuming he weighs 1.3oz. But, I looked. Nope, not in there.

Weird.
 
im soo upset too...if i could see the bodies...probably my cleaner crue did the job..who knows..theres no more crabs or mantis...as you said weird!!
 
Did you check the center console of your truck?

Everytime I lose something, keys, wallet, bam! its in my center console...
 
reeffreak said:
Do you have any scavengers like nassarius snails that could of finished off the body?
Click to expand...

I do have 5 red leg hermits. :shock:

Let's say the fish did die and the hermits ate it.

WHY did the fish die? It was eating well. Swimming totally normal. Acting totally normal. Picking at rocks and generally scavenging around the tank.

Water parameters are in good shape. I'm still amazed at how stable my tank has been.

So, why did it die? Do small hermits actually attack sleeping fish? These hermits are pretty small. Their shells are like 1" or 1.25" long and 1/2" diameter. Can't see just one of them being strong enough to attack a healthy wrasse. Maybe all 5 of them, but I seriously doubt they have the abiltiy to organize a coordinated attack.
 
Last edited:
I can't be certain its the red hermits.The only hermits I trust are the dwarf blue legged since they stay very small.They are looking like the number one suspect.Perhaps you need to do an interrogation on them.
 
If you have a cleaner crew that is doing its job, you won't find a trace of the bodies. That's kinda the point of having a cleaner crew, they need to be able to finish off whatever dies before it can pollute your water.

I say the body probably got eaten by the bristleworms and crabs. Why did it die? No idea. Sometimes fish just kick the bucket for no apparent reason.
 
Bifferwine said:
If you have a cleaner crew that is doing its job, you won't find a trace of the bodies. That's kinda the point of having a cleaner crew, they need to be able to finish off whatever dies before it can pollute your water.

I say the body probably got eaten by the bristleworms and crabs. Why did it die? No idea. Sometimes fish just kick the bucket for no apparent reason.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking kinda like Biff.

But here is another thought to look at.
Are there any deep holes in any of rock that the fish could squeeze into?
The reason I ask,Is because my sil-line spends the night way back in a 3/4 inch hole thats in a big rock right on the bottom of my pile.

Maybe it'll show up.If it dont,be sure to thank your clean up crew.
 
Man Yote, I took every single piece of rock outta my tank and shined a flashlight on it. Turned it over and looked in all the holes and crevices. I was thinking the little bugger might have gone up inside a hole or crack and wedged himself in there. Couldn't find him.

When I finally resigned myself to his passing, I started looking at my skimmer real hard. You'd think it would be producing a lot of skim if there was a body in the tank. It's actually not producing much skim at all. Normal. It went nuts for the first 12hrs when I installed it and it skimmed a LOT of grren slime. But it's been pretty slow to fill the cup since that initial install. Hasn't really filled the cup at all.

Those crabs do look a bit lethargic today. Maybe they are feeling fat-n-lazy after such a nice meal?

Very mysterious.
 
After introducing a new fish into my tank, I had my royal gramma disappear for literally 36 hours. He occassionally hides in rocks when scared but comes out every now and then.

Any new additions or anything that may have caused him to freak out a little bit? Maybe an uknown hitchhiker got to him (Mantis shrimp). I thought it had my royal gramma for dinner because they hide in the same rock.
 
When I was swapping tanks a while back.I was scrubbing my rocks before placing them in my 75.I got to the last rock and while scrubbing,heard something inside it.So I stuck it back in the 75 and out swam my lil bi-color blenny.

So stranger things have happened.
But its also still possible that your clean up crew got to him before he broke down enough to cause any perimeter problems.
 
I think the cleaner crew got him. He's just gone. I did notice a little bit of foam on the surface of the water yesterday. And the skimmer finally did start belching just a bit. Still, only 1/2" of skim in the cup since this all happened. I feed heavily, so lots of dissolved organics to skim.

Today, I paid 50% down at the LFS to hold another one for me. They have only had it for a couple hrs. I'm leaving town this weekend, so they agreed to hold the fish and monitor it until next week. We've agreed that I can back out if the fish is not healthy next week when I go to pick it up. It's a bit larger than my first one. Maybe 2" long. Seams healthy. Swimming normally. Not skinny, thats for sure. Seams alert and free of parasites, but it's so hard to tell in a bare tank at the LFS.

Part of me wants to go get it Monday after work. Get it out of that stressful environment at the LFS in a crowded tank with nothing to hide in. And part of me wants to give it a week and see if it will survive that long. Flip a coin I guess.
 
Just today I noticed my 6line swim into a hole in the side of my live rock right before my eyes. I swear he swam into a hold about 1/4 an inch smaller than his body. I was surprised, it doesnt seem like he could even possibly fit in there, and he comes out the other side... I didnt even know the hole went all the way through the 5" piece of live rock. Maybe he will show up one day when you come home... Mine is nowhere to be found after the lights go out, just vanishes while my clowns float around the top bobbing their heads up and down ontop of the water. I'm sorry for your loss, but keep hope and he may show up someday!
 
Ever figure anything else out? Mines in the exact same place yours is. If you come across your 6-line let mine know to come back... I miss him zipping around the rocks :( Maybe the aliens will bring all the 6-lines back some day.. Until then I'll miss him!
 
it probably hid inside a rock and died. you would never know they can fit in such small spots that you will never find it again :(
 

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