Royal Gramma hiding still or dead?

[bananaphone]

Hey everyone, I got a Royal Gramma just over 2 weeks ago. Acclimated it with a drip for a little over an hour and put it in and everything seemed fine. I saw it out late that night with the clowns I have in there and since then have not seen it at all. Not even when I feed with my pumps on and the mysis go all over the place(fish seem to love that way more then when i feed normally so i do it as a treat every couple of days).

All of my other fish, 2 clowns, kole tang and yellow watchman are all doing fine so I'm pretty sure the water isn't a problem. Did it maybe lodge itself in one of the holes in my live rock and is unable to get out? I really don't want to take out all my rocks looking for it. If I saw it every once in a while in a rock or something so i knew it was alive I would be fine. Just a bummer I haven't seen it at all.

I've also checked my ammonia a few times to see if there was a spike due to it being dead but it was fine every time.

 

[BryanF]

Unfortunately I've had missing fish before and have found them in the overflow, the sump, and on the floor behind the tank. One clown lived in my overflow for six months and was in decent health when I finally found him.

 

[Lawdogg28]

Unfortunately I've had missing fish before and have found them in the overflow, the sump, and on the floor behind the tank. One clown lived in my overflow for six months and was in decent health when I finally found him.

I have experienced finding them on the floor a couple of times. I have planted tanks with lots of dense plants and hadn't seen a couple of smaller fish for almost 8 months so I assumed they were long dead. Then one day I was rearranging and trimming my plants and I found them hiding but a ok. I hope that this is the outcome you have with your Royal Gramma.

 

[bananaphone]

i have a pvc diy overflow and if it got in there it would've clogged up the whole system so i know its not in there. it would've had to jump a good 2-3 inches to get out of the tank, and i've checked but haven't seen any fish on the floor. I'm really considering getting another one. How much longer should I wait before I do that? Or should I try moving some of the easier pieces of rock to see if that helps?

 

[fishguy69]

Royal G's are very shy at first. We have had some experiences with them not showing for a week or so. They have found a nook in a rock that they are hiding in and are just waiting to say hello to the others, hopefully! Let us know.

V

 

[bananaphone]

getting close to the 3 week mark and nothing so far. I'm really starting to think its a goner. A LFS just got a couple bigger royal grammas in that are a hearty 2inches or so and look pretty thick, might just grab one of those but they have some weird white markings on their face that concern me.

 

[jahmic]

As is the case any time you add fish to your system, no matter how healthy it looks, you can either:

a) Add the fish directly to the display tank and cross your fingers or

b) Follow proper QT procedures and ensure the fish is healthy before risking the rest of your livestock


In any case, if you just lost a fish mysteriously...I'd recommend giving it some time before adding anything else. How large is your tank? Kole tangs and clowns can be fairly aggressive toward new additions, especially if your tank is already too cramped.

 

[bananaphone]

Still working on getting a QT tank together. Right now its a 40gal breeder with ~30 pounds of live rock and 20 pounds of live sand, when my current roommate moves out in May then my other friend with an empty 90gal that I'll be buying will be moving in and everything will be moved in there after it gets set up and cycled. The Kole tang is super skittish and came over a week after the gramma so I don't think it did anything and the two clowns just stay together by this one spot and just want to eat all the time, so I would be very surprised if they did anything. There are a plenty of hiding spots for it but I'm just surprised I haven't seen it at all.

No corals in the tank, just a couple hermit crabs, various snails and 1 emerald crab. So if it died I'm not surprised I didn't notice as they probably cleaned it up real fast.

 

[jahmic]

Yea it sounds like your timing with adding the Kole tang after the Gramma would've worked out in your favor. Just keep a watch on the Kole Tang as you introduce additional fish...once he gets settled in, his lack of aggression may change. To keep stress levels low with new fish, reorganizing rocks to "trick" the tang into claiming new territory sometimes helps, as well as introducing the new fish at night.

 

[bananaphone]

I'm not sure the reorganizing of rocks would work as he chose this submarine decoration that my mom got for the tank as his hiding spot(couldn't not put it in, she would've gotten bummed, and it actually doesn't stick out at all). I will do the introducing at night though in the future, even I don't plan on adding anything else after I get the royal gramma situation figured out except MAYBE a mandarin goby. just need to see what I can do about getting live food if necessary for it.

 

[bananaphone]

alright, well i think its pretty safe to say its gone. still havent seen it or any signs of it. debating whether or not to get another one now. i'm seeing a lot of conflicting things about having more than 1 of them in a tank. i see a lot of people say its fine if you have plenty of hiding spots just in case there is any aggression, but for the most part they are more active and "social" if there are more than 1. and i also see a lot of people saying to keep just 1 unless you have large tank. im not looking to overstock my tank, i already did that when i had a cichlid tank and regretted it, but i would like a real colorful active fish that would work in my tank for now.

 

[jabronie]

so i took out and rearranged all my rocks and there was no sign of the gramma anywhere. bummer. i wonder what happened to it. i doubt its still in the rocks because i was even able to find my tiny pistol shrimp that hides inside my rock.

 

[CRW Reef]

lol im guessing bannaphone and jabronie are the either the same person or in the same house huh?

Sorry to hear about loosing the fish, unfortunately sometimes its just part of the hobby. Fish could of jumped out and carpet surfed or died in the rocks and was eaten by the clean up crew.