[jenwebber3]

Hi All,
My Royal Gramma has disappeared. Now, I know Grammas have sometimes been known to hide, for weeks, in the rocks. But, I had him for 2 months and he was out, active, eating like a Hoover. Then, poof! gone. (ok, he had been battling ich, so let's not say he was totally healthy) He is not on the carpet, in the sump, or in view. I've looked into every crack I can physically see with the lights on, lights off, and with a flashlight. Now, for the dumb question:

Is it necessary (b/c certainly not practical) to tear apart 29 pounds of live rock (in a 29-gal tank, mind you) and all my gorgeous coral to find what may be a dead fish? There's no room in the tank for me to maneuver this stuff, and Lord knows I'll never be able to get the rocks stacked again as I had them (and I LOVE my rock structure). The water doesn't have a dead fish smell, the ammonia and nitrates are currently fine. I mean, obviously, things being ideal, we don't want a fish rotting away in there. But I do have a lot of scavengers (though, oddly enough, I haven't seen any obvious frenzy activity in them as if they've found the mother lode). My other two fish are acting like nothing is wrong. He's been out-of-sight for two days.

I do worry about ammonia, because my peppy shrimp are super-sensitive to it. But if I keep an eye on the water and the nutrient/free radical levels, can I let him become part of the cycle (if, that is, he really is toast)?

sorry for the wordy post, but thanks for the thoughts!

[AlexfromSATX]

I think you are fine for now. Just keep an eye on the parameters, and if you start to see a spike you can do a water change to control the "Cycle" That is if he is dead. If I remember correctly I think the Grammas are like wrasses and can "cocoon" themselves with a slime type coat, so you may have just looked right over him. But I can't remember that for sure. Tearing up the tank just wouldn't be fun and we all know how hard it is to recreate an aquascape once we tear it up Hopefully he reappears for you in a couple of days.