Missing Kole Tang
 

Hi Reefers,

On Tuesday night I got a Kole tang and a wrasse from a fellow reefer. Because they came from a reputable person and seemed healthy I carefully acclimatized them and introduced them both in my DT. Within minutes they both disappeared in the rockwork. The next day, the wrasse started swimming around. The Kole has been MIA for 48 hours now.

Anybody else had this experience? Is he dead? Do I need to rip the rockwork apart to find the body? He was a little stressed out and breathing rapidly when I first put him into the tank.

The skimmer doesn't seem to indicate any undesirable bological activity....

Any thoughts anyone? Any advice?

usually the cuc gets it before you can find anything. Not worth ripping rocks apart in my opinion. Test your water, that is the best way to tell. If you have a spike in nitrates or ammonia then you probably have a dead fish. Water changes are my solution to that.

I just tested the ammonia; it's undetectable. Still no trace of my Kole tang. Could he be alive and hiding for the third day?

Yes they can hide for days.....what other fish do you have in the tank?

A pair of Percula Clowns, a Copperband Butterfly, a pair of shrimp and a wrasse that came from the same tank as the Kole....

ummm well there are no fish it should be hiding from so I would have a good look around and try to see if he is OK.

I did look around to no avail. I would have to start moving rocks (a lot of rocks).

Is it worth the trouble?

If you want to avoid an ammo spike/algae outbreak due to a dead fish, then ya, it's worth it :wink:

Hopefully he's just hiding

I would move the rocks and look for him.

I think if it died the bristle worms will likely have already eaten it. You could use a power head to try to wash it out of the rocks.