Cirrhilabrus bealteatus

[iceh]

Found a beatiful little guy at the LFS on saturday - only charged me $45. He's around 2-3" and his "girdle" is a brilliant orange. He's been hiding since saturday, he only came out to eat once on tuesday.

How long could his "introductory" hiding period last?

So far he and my african exquisite wrasse haven't decided to be nice to each other...

*DISCLAIMER* Yes I do have a screen on the top of my tank.

[coralreefhq]

Did you do any pre dips or quarantine the fish?

Might be too quick to jump the gun by introducing it into your display tank.

If you didn't put it in a display tank and in a QT tank, sit tight and right it out, it'll be fine.

[MrTuskfish]

Don't sweat it; many shyer fish can hid for a week or more. I've had a couple wrasse I didn't even see for over a week, even though thy were eating well in QT.

[iceh]

Update:

Still haven't seen the little guy, it's been more than 2 weeks. I checked the tank with a flashlight and I even pulled the plug on my return to check the overflow box. I can quite see all the way to the bottom, so I can't tell if he's in there.

So one of three things could be true...
A) He's in the tank alive and hiding.
B) He's in the tank dead.
C) He's in the overflow (alive/dead).

I haven't seen an increase in nitrates or anything to show that he might have died. But it's still a mystery as to where he might be.

Any suggestions?