Royal Gramma gone AWOL?

[dsly]

My tank is a BioCube29, with about 35 lb. of LR. Have two very small percs (3/4"), a coral banded shrimp, some blue legged hermits, and 10 turbo snails. Has been up and running for a month.
Put a Royal Gramma in on Friday. Saw him poke his head out on Saturday. Haven't seen him since. No ammonia spikes. No bodies.
Is this typical?

[beechbouy]

Did you check on the floor around the aquarium? I lost a dotty-back that way just this week.

[dsly]

Originally Posted by beechbouy

Did you check on the floor around the aquarium? I lost a dotty-back that way just this week.

BioCube has a tight fitting lid, so he couldn't get out unless I had the lid open. But I did check, and no fish. Took everything out of the filter section too, including pump and bioballs, and nope. Great disappearing act!

[combiemaster]

wow i had the same thing happen in my 24g nano cube i had a yellow watchman gobie dissapear no spikes either and nothing around the tank never found him either

[Geoff]

how porous is your LR? they can fit into some pretty amazing spaces.

G~

[jenajet]

Yeah check the rock. Mine never came out not even to eat. He would just stick his head out and grab food that floated by. Made catching him very easy tho just pulled the whole rock out.

[Loverotties]

They are great at hiding.maybe at night with a red lens light(they can't see red)you can look in the tank for him.

[dsly]

Originally Posted by Loverotties

They are great at hiding.maybe at night with a red lens light(they can't see red)you can look in the tank for him.

Lots of porous LR...many hiding spots. I'll do the 'Crocodile Hunter' thing tonite with the red light.
Thanks!

[dsly]

Two nights of skulking with red light produced no sightings. Then this morning, my coral banded shrimp showed up half eaten in the corner. There's half a dozen blue legged hermits (no bigger than a little finger nail). Don't know if they ate him post mortem, or if the Gramma had a go at him. There weren't any crabs around the body when I found it; they're all on the LR.
Opinions?

[Pinderville]

It sounds like crab food to me. I have lost fish like that. They die during the night, and the crabs dont leave anything behind.

[dsly]

Well, I discovered that shrimp molt. He's not quite dead yet. In fact, he seems quite well.
Still haven't seen the Gramma. Got a Red Striped Hi Fin Gobie, and a flasher wrasse. Maybe this will encourage the Gramma.

[kyrie_eleison]

That's a long time for a fish to go missing. I had a similar situation where my gramma went missing for a couple days and out of the blue--he reappeared. Probably b/c he was hungry.

[Pinderville]

Can he get into any pumps or filters?

[avalanche wolf]

This is why I will never buy this fish again ! it failed the 3 strikes law. Just kept getting into the KR and never coming out and going MIA. Too bad since it is such an pretty fish.

[chrisjet]

my royal grammma disappersd also. I have the same setup.