Biota mandarin fish and overflows?

[afboundguy]

I purchased a pair of mandarin fish from Biota last week and the first few days I had them in an acclimation box and wanted to keep them in a few days longer but the male got out so I released them both.

They had been eating in the acclimation box and I saw them eating frozen, pellet, freshly hatched BBS and white worms.

The past two days I haven't seen the female but I have seen the male. The female was super tiny and I am wondering if she went down the overflow? She basically was staying in the corner by the BBS disk I have set up which made spot feeding pellet and frozen food!

I do have several RBTAs but they are up near the top of the rockwork so that could be a possibility but I have never lost one to an anemone before. I am hoping she is just in the crevices of the rockwork since there are tons of pods but my rockwork isn't that bulky as I went minimalistic.

I am planning on trying to take the rocks out of the return section of the sump the next few days but I have been checking with a flashlight but it's not very easy to check as it's a tight space...

 

[Slocke]

I have had a few fish sucked down to the sump and be fine and one that got stuck in a filter sock and died

 

[PotatoPig]

Mine got sucked into the overflow and somehow survived in the drain compartment for ~4 days before I found it.

Put it back in the tank and 30 mins later it’s acting like nothing ever happened.

 

[Harpo]

Mine was in my overflow box for a month or more

 

[afboundguy]

I checked the overflow box the past few days and haven't seen it but I will focus on searching the return section tomorrow after work thanks!

Luckily I don't have any filter socks and haven't set up my filter socks setup!