Dragon wrasse MIA

So I have had my dragon wrasse for a little over a month and he has always been kind of on his own schedule. Whereas all the other fish in all of my tanks are pretty much raring to go when the lights come on, he shows up when he feels like it. Sometimes before the lights are on, sometimes not long before the lights go off and all points in between. Now I haven't seen him for about three days. I know they are extremely hardy, (the LFS said it would take a baseball bat to kill him), but I have read that because of their high metabolism there is the chance of them starving to death if not fed enough. I have been checking my ammonia and it tests fine as do all parameters,(nitrates between 10 & 20), but I'm wondering how long I should wait before tearing down the rocks and going in search of him. I do have an open top but have checked all around the back of the tank and have not started smelling any odor of death. I'm thinking if I don't see him by tonight after work I'm going to have to try finding him. Anybody have any experience with this or any ideas?

mcsassy said:

Look under the tank...you might see his tail where he is buried in the sand (if they are the burying type). I had a tamarin wrasse that hid under the sand for a couple weeks and I would see where it was by seeing it's yellow tail from under the tank while it was buried in the sand. If the location changes, then he is alive.

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Excellent Idea! Alas, no sign of him but will keep checking. He is definitely a burying type. I have seen him do it a number of times. One question on your tamarin. How did he survive that long without eating unless you have an auto feeder and he was eating in the middle of the night?

ToeJam said:

Dragon Wrasse aka Raindeer Wrasse.. They are burrowers into sand...and they will burrow under rocks that are not on baserock...= kills self

I've had one do that...

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Yea, I have thought about that and it is possible. I have most of my rock on large base rock and I haven't noticed any shifting that is apparent but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I keep checking my ammonia level thinking that if he is dead then eventually the level will start to rise. I guess at some point I'm going to have to give in and start tearing the rock down and searching. I would think that the way he throws rocks around the tank that it would have to be a significant rock to crush him but he throws them with his mouth so who knows.

Well, Mr. dragon wrasse decided to show up for dinner tonight so I was paranoid for nothing but I now have a new problem so I will start a new thread. Thanks for all of the feedback, it was informative!