Mysterious Disappearing Flame Angelfish

[Seacilian77]

So Sunday, October 27th was the last day I saw my flame angel (1-1/4") The flame was usually pretty shy so I didn't give it too much thought when I didn't see him. Over the week I noticed that (i work 9am to 9pm so during the week I feed and and say goodnight) I hadn't seen him. Lastnight I made a point to stare at the tank until I did. Today I couldn't take it anymore and I broke down the whole damn setup! I took out every piece of rock and coral and did not find any trace. Not a body not a piece. WTH!!!

So can anyone relate? Have similar thing happen? I have nothing around the tank on the floor. Had the bright red fish made it on to the floor I would have seen it.

And in the midst of all this, here is the recent tank history;
Tuesday night the Tang and clown are both visibly infected by Ich. Wednesday I come back from work with Kordons Ich Attack herbal Formula and Garlic Guard. I've been treating / feeding the tank twice a day. The symptoms have subsided. No one looks like they're covered in salt nor bouncing all over the live rock. The tang got his color back today and the clown trigger doesn't look like he's doing a zombie impression. Oddly enough the Flame angel never materialized all week so I couldn't tell how it was effected. The cinnamon and damsel never looked affected. I been staring all day looking for a spot and maybe I think I found one but nothing like the trigger and tang.
Tomorrow I fresh water dip and setup a quarantine.
But that has nothing to do with my biggest questions. Where the hell is the Flame Angel????

My aquarium info:
I just bought this mature setup (1 year since last addition) about 8 weeks ago
50 gallon Seaclear acrylic with built sump w 5 chambers
36x15x19
1st loaded with live rock rubble
2nd heater and mangrove plant
3rd small chamber (1" wide) with an eggcrate vertically
4th from the bottom up, live rock rubble, live sand, filter basket, sponges,
2 Purigen packs and bonded filter pads
r.o. / d.i. water
clown trigger
cinnamon clownfish
damsel
yellow tang (4 weeks in tank)
flame angel (?) (4 weeks in tank)
hermits
emerald red slug
brittle star fish
yellow hammer
torch
green eyed zoa
assorted paly's
Water
1.20 to help with Ich
82 degrees
No3 - 5.0 (never been this high)
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0.0
No2 - 0.0
Kh 8
Phosphate - 0.25
calc - 440
I do 10% water changes weekly. Usually have salinity at 1.023

So any ideas as to what the hell happened to this fish would be greatly appreciated because I really don't want to add anymore until I know for sure. The flame was my sons favorite, he named it Foxy, because it was sly like a fox.

Thanks for reading this.

 

[Dimitrios91]

So Sunday, October 27th was the last day I saw my flame angel (1-1/4") The flame was usually pretty shy so I didn't give it too much thought when I didn't see him. Over the week I noticed that (i work 9am to 9pm so during the week I feed and and say goodnight) I hadn't seen him. Lastnight I made a point to stare at the tank until I did. Today I couldn't take it anymore and I broke down the whole damn setup! I took out every piece of rock and coral and did not find any trace. Not a body not a piece. WTH!!!

So can anyone relate? Have similar thing happen? I have nothing around the tank on the floor. Had the bright red fish made it on to the floor I would have seen it.

And in the midst of all this, here is the recent tank history;
Tuesday night the Tang and clown are both visibly infected by Ich. Wednesday I come back from work with Kordons Ich Attack herbal Formula and Garlic Guard. I've been treating / feeding the tank twice a day. The symptoms have subsided. No one looks like they're covered in salt nor bouncing all over the live rock. The tang got his color back today and the clown trigger doesn't look like he's doing a zombie impression. Oddly enough the Flame angel never materialized all week so I couldn't tell how it was effected. The cinnamon and damsel never looked affected. I been staring all day looking for a spot and maybe I think I found one but nothing like the trigger and tang.
Tomorrow I fresh water dip and setup a quarantine.
But that has nothing to do with my biggest questions. Where the hell is the Flame Angel????

My aquarium info:
I just bought this mature setup (1 year since last addition) about 8 weeks ago
50 gallon Seaclear acrylic with built sump w 5 chambers
36x15x19
1st loaded with live rock rubble
2nd heater and mangrove plant
3rd small chamber (1" wide) with an eggcrate vertically
4th from the bottom up, live rock rubble, live sand, filter basket, sponges,
2 Purigen packs and bonded filter pads
r.o. / d.i. water
clown trigger
cinnamon clownfish
damsel
yellow tang (4 weeks in tank)
flame angel (?) (4 weeks in tank)
hermits
emerald red slug
brittle star fish
yellow hammer
torch
green eyed zoa
assorted paly's
Water
1.20 to help with Ich
82 degrees
No3 - 5.0 (never been this high)
PH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0.0
No2 - 0.0
Kh 8
Phosphate - 0.25
calc - 440
I do 10% water changes weekly. Usually have salinity at 1.023

So any ideas as to what the hell happened to this fish would be greatly appreciated because I really don't want to add anymore until I know for sure. The flame was my sons favorite, he named it Foxy, because it was sly like a fox.

Thanks for reading this.

My guess would be check to the filter sock, I lost my 1 1/2 hippo to the overflow

 

[Seacilian77]

no filter sock, just built in overflow that goes straight to bonded filter pads. But the flame is definitely small enough to go in the overflow. What a royal pain in the *** its going to be to take that down. :arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::grumpy:

thanks, it'll be worth it if I find him back there. that will have to wait until tomorrow. he'll live through the night. I had a damsel make it through a week.

 

[Dimitrios91]

no filter sock, just built in overflow that goes straight to bonded filter pads. But the flame is definitely small enough to go in the overflow. What a royal pain in the *** its going to be to take that down. :arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::grumpy:

thanks, it'll be worth it if I find him back there. that will have to wait until tomorrow. he'll live through the night. I had a damsel make it through a week.

Hopefully so, goodluck, hope you find the little guy

 

[Dimitrios91]

no filter sock, just built in overflow that goes straight to bonded filter pads. But the flame is definitely small enough to go in the overflow. What a royal pain in the *** its going to be to take that down. :arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::arg::grumpy:

thanks, it'll be worth it if I find him back there. that will have to wait until tomorrow. he'll live through the night. I had a damsel make it through a week.

Have ypou also searched outside the tank, since it could have possibly been chased and took the jump. Check under your stand, behind your sump, anywhere there's a possible opening. I had a goby do that once, took a few days to locate it, because it leaped and apparently hobbled along and under a chair across the room.

 

[ohana888]

if it died, hermits can make a quick meal overnight for a 1.25" fish. do you have a cover - maybe jumped out & dried up? no3 spike could be from the fish dying. dropping salinity to 1.02 will not stop or kill ich. i would move the remaining 4 fish to QT and leave tank fallow for 10 wks. any lower and your corals can suffer. just my .05.

 

[troywalkerphoto]

Can you say brittle star... Fish gets sick and dies... owner does not notice...Patrick star burps

 

[e.muehlbauer]

In a tank with a good clean-up crew, a dead fish does not last more than 24 hours. A jumper can hop its way into some pretty inaccessible areas. On the other hand, my flame angel seems to disappear for days at a time before showing up again.