Missing Fish

kreblak

kreblak

FDA approval pending
Mar 13, 2003
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My Niger Triggerfish has gone missing. The last time I saw him was on Friday. He was being shy during the last half of last week, and when I saw him on Friday, I saw that he was being shy because he had some fin damage from a fight with my pseudochromis (they don't get along). This has happened before, and the trigger usually heals up within a couple of days and is back to normal.

This time however, the trigger is no where to be found! He doesn't even come out for feeding, when usually he is bobbing at the surface in anticipation when he sees me coming. The trigger is a juvenile, about 2" long, but has been growing since his introduction into the tank several months ago. I hope that he'll grow large enough to make the pseudochromis back off.

Anyway, I have a 46 gallon tank, with 20 lbs of live rock and 25 lbs of base rock. I also have two large pieces of dead coral as decoration in the tank. I have lifted and looked under the LR, as well as the dead corals, and the trigger is no where to be seen. I don't think he's dead, because I haven't seen my hermits swarming any one spot of the tank, like they did when I lost a Domino Damsel about 6 months ago. I found his carcass picked clean after about two hours.

Where is my triggerfish? Any ideas or thoughts? I haven't seen him in over four days now, and I'm really starting to wonder.
My stocking list is thus:
1 Niger Triggerfish
1 skunk pseudochromis
1 yellowtail damsel
1 candy stripe cleaner shrimp
10 scarlett hermit crabs
2 blue legged hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
1 sea urchin
20 something snails (astrea, nerite, cerith, and turbo)
20 lbs live rock
25 lbs base rock
 
I had a niger trigger that loved to hide in a large conch shell. I expect that yours has found a similar hidey-hole to escape the pseudochromis. Keep your eyes peeled.
 
lost fish

I hope you have better luck than us. We have had 2 fish go missing. After 2 days we gave up hope. On another occasion we had one die in plain sight and saw the hermits swarm the carcass. Had we not scooped it out it would have been gone in short order. I wish you luck. Let us hear. I never know how long to hold out hope.
 
Well, it has now been 5 days without a single sighting of the triggerfish. As much as I want to believe that he is just hiding out, I have to accept the fact that he is most likely a goner.

My only glint of hope is that my hermits continue to wander about the tank as though nothing is different. If there were a triggerfish carcass laying around they would be all over it like white on rice. So far that hasn't happened. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Wondering if the trigger is dead, I tested my water tonight:

Ammonia = 0
nitrites = 0
nitrates = 0-10 ppm

This is bizarre, because my nitrates ALWAYS read 50 ppm or more. Having finally had enough of this wondering and waiting, I basically broke down the tank. I discovered several things. First, I did not know that my large piece of LR (11 lbs) had an underwater cave complex on it's back side. I turned the rock over and stuck my finger all the way in. I found nothing. Second, I didn't know that I have a growth of green hair algae between the rocks. Heck, I didn't even think that the light could penetrate down there. Third, I didn't know I had so many hitchhikers on my LR. I found numerous inverts hanging out in the overturned rocks. Finally, I found out that there is NO TRACE WHAT SO EVER of the triggerfish. It is literally like he vanished.

I even checked the entire area around the tank to see if he jumped out. I checked the HOT filter to see if he had somehow gotten in there. It is like he never existed!

I am baffled. I cannot explain this at all. If the trigger were dead, even if the hermits and the emerald crab had gotten to the carcass, there would be remains rotting and producing ammonia. My ammonia = 0. There should be a nitrate spike, as Mogurnda pointed out. Instead, my nitrates read lower than they ever have before! This may be the most frustrated I have ever felt with this hobby.
 
Look for tiny trigger bones scattered about in the substrate...

Also...why would you stick your finger in a hole on a piece of LR not knowing what was inside? Something will get your finger....between the emerald and hermits...he could have been a short order meal...
 
Still no sign of him. I know he's crab food. :mad: I just wish I could find out what happened to him. He was the picture of health and was growing nicely for 5 months, and then this happens. Wierd.
 
I too had a niger at one time and he jumped out of the tank...If I didn't hear the thud I'd have found him the next morning.

Do you have any other pets that could have grabbed the fish if he jumped out?
 
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