In a matter of 30 minutes from when my husband had seen him happily swimming to when I couldn’t find him and realized he was stuck in our wavemaker, our Valentini is gone. He was a tiny little baby, maybe less than an inch in size, and got along with everyone in our 55Gal. He was eating and had a full belly and was always very curious and sociable. I regret not having put some mesh on our wavemaker because he saw his big brother would pick at it for any food in there, and tried to do the same, but he was too tiny and there was a thread of algae in there that seemed to have tangled around him and he tragically passed. I’m so heartbroken.
We kept him with our Blue Spot puffer and against all odds, they got along well. There was also 2 Clownfish, a Royal Gramma, and Starry Blenny with him. Our Blue Spot is pretty mellow and doesn’t pick on other fish, and he never showed aggression towards the Valentini even during feeding. The snails, however, are a different story. Anyways, I’m just so sad and I wish I could have done more to prevent this. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find another puffer like him to cohabitate so well with our Blue Spot. RIP, little Napoleon.
So sorry for your loss...