Lost a fish but no body?

So 3 weeks ago I bought a long nose hawkfish for my girlfriend since she loves the species, but unfortunately the guy we had was not eating flakes, pellets or frozen foods. I thought it may take him a few days but as time went by, no luck. I tried so many foods and just recently order a brine shrimp hatchery to feed him live food (I noticed he would hunt for the critters in the rocks to eat), but sadly the other night I noticed he was on the way out since he was very skinny and still refusing to eat anything not alive .

Now here's the scary part. I was going to take him out of the tank when I saw he was getting weak, but I figured I'll let nature take its course for the night. Well come the following morning I figured he would have passed, but I can't find a body anywhere. I moved the movable rocks around, and fanned the water to see if I could kick up anything but nothing showed. It's been a day now and still nothing I cannot find him anywhere. Now I have a lot of live rock critters in my tank as well as hermits and a skunk shrimp, but no truly aggressive carnivorous fish. Is it possible they ate the body? wouldn't you at least expect a head or something? The hawk fish was about 2 inches long. When my inverts molt, the molt is usually eaten by morning but I thought a fish would be different. I have to move in a month so I'll be breaking down the tank then, but I really dont want to disassemble everything looking for a fish that might not be there anymore. I'm afraid if the body is still there it could cause diseases so I'm really not sure what to do?? Any suggestions or advice would be helpful! Thanks!

 

Critters eat bodies very rapidly but given the fish i question is a major carpet surfer, I suspect it went for a ride and died in a ball of lint. Got cats or dogs... if so doubtful you'll find the body. If you don't, check around the tank. They can flop pretty far.

 

It could have been eaten. I had 3 chromis die and never found their bodies. i also had a flasher wrasse die and within 24 hours, he was well on his way to being eaten when I found the body. However, that's a good point above, check all around the tank.

 

They were our number one jumper when I worked on the wholesale side of things. We never left their tank uncovered. Their flight instinct is to go straight up, like most wrasses do as well.

 

Check your filter.. I've had fish who have gotten stuck in the filter.

 

Is it possible you have a Brittlestar hitchhiker? They can remove a body in a quick hurry.

 

That funny because I just misplace my long nose hawkfish last week! I have a cleanup crew that could last in the colosseum with gladiators, they leave no trace. Not even CSI could tell what happened...

 

so it seems this is a little more common than I thought. I did check all around the tank as my last hawk fish did jump. And because of that I completely blocked off pretty much everywhere on the top except for a tiny crack near the skimmer. But yes I do have cats so you never know.

I did some more searching tonight with no luck finding the hawk fish but I caught something else. A few weeks ago I found a molt of something that looked frighteningly like a mantis shrimp, a baby but still almost 1/2 inch long. Well I caught the sucker, but he died in the ensuing battle of trying to scoop him up =/. He must have hitch hiked on some new rock I purchased 6 weeks ago, but either way that puts my worries to rest.

 

I've had tangs die and the hermits and shrimp had the body gone in less than an hour

 

A tang? Wow. That's crazy. Well I guess the little guy won't be getting a burial

Does anyone think I should be concerned about disease in this situation? I don't really have any (or know of any) meds I can directly apply to the DT to ward of diseases.