How can a fish completely disappear in a small tank?- UPDATE

[trotsky123]

Go into a store last night to buy an addition to my tank (now have only a tomato clown given to me as a gift).
I was looking for a blenny or goby (as advised on this forum).
My LFS convinces me to take a gorgeous fish called Dragon Wrasse which is perfect for 35gal hex - hey what do I know.
The girl says put the tomato clown in the net for an hour or so and release the wrasse after acclimation. Feed them, bla bla bla.
Followed the advise....7 hours later Wrasse is missing. I checked the sandbed (yes I did my research after that they sleep in sand).
The lid is tight and no way of getting out that way either.
Also, I only have 1 hermit crab and like 4 snails so it couldn't be eaten in few hours, no?
Any ideas? Please help......
PS And yes, I know not to ever again listen to LFS and not to buy a Dragon Wrasse who grows to 1 ft

 

[flower]

Keep looking, I don't know how many times I thought a fish was MIA and see it weeks later. I did have a yellow wreasse go into the sand and was never seen again.

 

[trotsky123]

Lol
My tank is fairly small 35 gal hex and i went through sand bed - plus my clown is all over the tank now
I was hoping it would appear somewhere as it's not a tiny wrasse.
Seriously speaking, if it died, would there be carcass or something in like 5 hours.....

 

[florida joe]

what kind of filtration system are you using

 

[hawkfish203]

He may still be in the sand bed and you just looked over him. If you don't think so I would look around the floors and under the tank.

 

[trotsky123]

I just went through the sand bed with a net- nothing there. I assume he's pop out if I touched him or scared him.
My lid was closed and the only opening where the tubes go in is too small (but I checked behind there) and there is nowhere to go since it;s a hex in the corner.
Filter is Fluval 205 and there is a cap.
I have no idea how that thing died and disolved unless my clown just ate him in a matter of few hours

 

[trotsky123]

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions.
After 2 days of waiting, going through all rock and sand in my small 35 gallon tank my dragon wrasse APPEARED out of nowhere after I gave up completely!!!
My clown doesn't seem going after him at all and wrasse actually tried to attack a snail! What a sight!
So THANK YOU all who responded!

 

[yannifish]

Lol, those darn wrasses seem to like to do that kind of thing.

 

[btldreef]

Just a thought, even though I might be a little late for this...
It sounds like you stirred up your sand bed quite a bit. This can be really dangerous, especially in a smaller tank with very little clean up crew.
You're lucky that you didn't experience an ammonia spike by doing that. I'm going to assume you were able to get away with it this time because you only had one fish and it sounds like this is a newer system, so there wasn't that much of a bioload.