Starting to worry about my Nem

[nemosar]

I got a nem of Chris (Course-It's-Reefsafe) in the summer and it appeared to be happy in my tank until mid December when it went on a little walk around. It found a new spot after a few days and stayed there for about a week when it moved again.

The problem is I've not seen it for 11 days now :confused: . At first I thought it might have gone off to split, but from what I've read this would/should have happened by now and it would have appeared again by now.

I got back yesterday from a couple of nights away hoping I'd be able to see it but there is no sign.

Everything else in the tank looks fine, and I cannot detect anything unusual on tests so I don't think it is dying / died.

I'm at a complete loss now as to what to do. I've been playing the waiting game but not sure if I should continue to do this, or whether I should get 'my hands wet' to have a look around for it.

It is usual for Nem's to hide for long periods of time, or shoud I assume the worst in which case after 11 days would there even be anything left to find?

This is one of my fav pics of the Nem taken a couple of days before it disappeared...

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2006Q4/pjhnem.JPG

[SCOOB]

hmmm i got this anemones brother/sister. is it definately not visible? have you got up on a step ladder and looked in from above, if it is happy-ish it would be somewhere it can get some light, maybe through a hole in the rockwork you can't see from the front.

are the clowns not giving you any clue as to where it has shifted?

[nemosar]

No - can't see it anywhere. I had a real good look around yesterday evening had a torch out and was trying to look in all the gaps in the rock as I have seen it shrink up v. small before so wondered if it was wedged in somewhere completely deflated - but absolutly no sign.

No clue from the clowns either :(

[angelfishman]

have you changed the lighting or altered the water movement in the tank,because they only move if not happy.are you feeding it on a regular basis because this can cause them to move as well.if it stops hidden for any lenght of time it will eventually die,so try to keep an eye out for it because they can deteriate in a very short time.derek

[Corsetts]

Best of luck with it:) When it first budded off it ran straight to the back of the tank under the largest rockpile it could find which negated a partial strip down to uninstall it :(

I hope it turns up, but i'd be tempted (if its practicable) to try and uncover it. I dont know how long they can go without light, but its not very long I would suspect.

When mine splits, it does tend to deflate a lot more frequently just before and then go into hiding for a few days just before, although its always visible. This may well just be due to its location though. In your tank if the foot is attached a long way down, maybe its down by the foot if it is splitting?. In my first tank this nem was in, the foot was attached a good 6-9" away from where the nem actually showed :)

Best of luck :)

[Reef bloke]

Have you got a sump?A few years ago one of mine got into my standpipe and was sitting in my sump for a week before i noticed it lol.

[nemosar]

Well I've had the best hunt around I can do without causing a rock fall today and there is no sign anywhere of the nem :confused: :confused:

It has now been nearly two weeks since I saw it, yet have seen nothing to suggest it has died and polluted the tank (all the other fish and corals appear fine and tests are still showing normal levels, skimmer is producing the same skim).

In terms of changes to things, there have been no changes to the lighting or flow from my side. I did think it strange in the week before it disappeared that it had settled in a overhang where it wasn't getting light from the halides. It wasn't until the weekend when I was home that I saw that for 4/5 hours a day the low sun was streaming in the patio window through the side of the tank and straight onto the nem. I decided to leave the curtains shut on the Monday morning when I went to work as I didn't want it to get used to the natural sunlight and that was the last I saw of it :( I don't know if this could have had an effect?

I'm a bit of a loss as to what to do now. I'll keep an eye on the tank to see if anything changes over the next week or so, but I think that somehow the Nem has managed to die and disappear without a trace :mad:

I'd like to get another as watching the clowns in the nem has been the highlight of the tank for me, but I'm not sure if that would be wise based on this experience :confused:

...sorry to you too Chris; that was a fantastic Nem, sorry it doesn't seem to have survived. :(

[jon_m3]

if its died you`ll know about it mate the water will go very manky.

[nemosar]

Well, It's been three weeks now since I last saw the Nem.

I've had a thorough search around the tank and there is no trace of it anywhere :mad:.

It's really strange, I've done another set of tests today and there is nothing unusal showing; there have been no problems at all with the water over the past few weeks it really is as if it has just simply 'disappeared'. It wasn't a huge Nem, is it possible that it could have died and the remains eaten by something without it polluting the tank?

I'm wondering if the clowns had harrassed it; prior to it's move it was only the small common that went in it, but just before it's diappearance the after it's move around the tank the two larger percs had moved in and taken to spending all day and night in it. This for me though was when it was at it's best, fully expanded, with the clowns loving it, the Nem didn't seem to mind... :confused:

Would really like to get another, but I just don't know if I shoud risk it without knowing what went wrong here, but I don't seem to have any clues!

Can they just dissapear without a trace?! (tank is 50 x 20 x 20 + sump 20 x 16 x 18, 60kg mature LR plenty of clean up crew etc.)

[jon_m3]

suppose if you have a dead spot behind your LR then it could just be sat decomposing but surely youd see something on the tests and other things wouldnt be looking to hot imo