What happened to my firefish?

[bon_jon11]

I recently bought a purple firefish and added it to my 18 gal reef. I acclimated and it was doing real well. The next day I couldnt find him, I was pissed off. $25 down the drain. My question is what could have happened to him? I have a yellow watchman that live with a pistol shrimp, mandarin, neon blue gobie, peppermint and skunk shrimp, various snails, hermit crabs, and a assortment of soft corals. I was wondering if something ate him and what could have it been. I know it didn't jump out because I looked for it. So if someone can help me with this strange dissappearance, that would be great.

[EdgeKrusher]

If you're tank is not covered it may have jumped out. Then tend to do that. I would check the area around the outside of your tank.

[yardboy]

I've got this thing going with firefish. Every time I see one in the lfs I want it. I've been able to control my urges now, since I've had four suffer their demise at my hands. One definitely jumped out of the tank.
He'd been in the 70 gallon with canopy for two weeks, seemingly happy. I bought another (you know they like to be in schools) and when I brought it home, I looked for the first one, no where to be seen, until I found him on the floor. Thinking maybe a damsel had harassed him to his death (though I never saw one do it; he seemed perfectly content) I put the second in my refugium (20Long) He just disappeared after two days. The overflow went into the main tank by gravity, so I hoped he might show up in the main tank, but no luck. Twice more I bought them and put them in the main tank, and after two weeks, and three, they just disappeared. One of the mysterys of reefkeeping.
I also lost my first fish, a coral beauty, to disappearance. Funny thing is, I've not lost anything for five months, all the losses occurred over a relatively short time, and I've added a lawnmower blenny and rainford goby since, and they are still in there. No, wait, my sailfin blenny "just disappeared" also, four months ago. I'm watching now for black holes.

[manderson0805]

Probably jumped....sounds like you're already over the limit on the number of fish in your tank, and with a mandarin, I would strongly consider taking it back for store credit. With that little of a tank, there isn't enough food to keep it alive for more that a week or two. Don't mean to sound rude, but I'm trying to help people from making the same mistakes I made. I've never seen a mandarin live in anything less than a 75, and that tank had about 180lbs of LR in it.

[Ray1214]

One other thought. I bought a purple firefish and I thought it had a similar demise. About a week later I finally saw him out. Apparently he was just hiding in the live rock until he got acclimated and/or adjusted to his new surroundings. From what I have understood, firefish are just as skittish and /or shy as anything else. I have also heard the same rhetoric as everyone else in that they will "Carpet Surf" as a hobby. I typically have my QT tank very well sealed because of that.
I have to agree with manderson about the bioload and the mandarin. I waited until my tank was a year mature before I got one, and kept him for over a year until he lost a fight with a wayward powerhead. Up until then, he decimated my critter population to the point I had to install an Intank refugium.

[EdgeKrusher]

Mandarin's need a lot of pods to feed off of. So the only way to keep one is to either have a big tank like manderson said, or have a refugium where the pods can develop without being devoured by predators, just make sure the fuge returns water via gravity so the pods don't get chopped up going throug the power head. I agree with manderson that you should take it back until you have the proper environment for the fish.

Peace