Basslet Spitting Sand?

ScubaFish802 · Nov 1, 2020

I’ve noticed our Black Cap Basslet doing an odd thing at night, if you stay still long enough it will dive down to the back corner of the tank, re-appear above a small rock, and spit large (for it’s size) amounts of sand out.

It seems to only temporarily annoy the cloves in that corner.. but I wonder why it is doing this?

It has made it’s obvious home in a cave in a separate part of the tank.

You can see the area it has been digging out in the corner

saltyhog · Nov 2, 2020

Mine does this if I or any tank inhabitant moves sand near the entrance of his cave. Yours either is considering a move or has some other territorial interest in that area. Mine has a secondary entrance he also keeps clear.

Perfectly normal behavior from this species.

Sosuke · Nov 2, 2020

saltyhog said:
Mine does this if I or any tank inhabitant moves sand near the entrance of his cave. Yours either is considering a move or has some other territorial interest in that area. Mine has a secondary entrance he also keeps clear.

Perfectly normal behavior from this species.

+1 my blackcap basslet has constructed two homes in my tank and moves sand, shells, and rubble to make homes.

ScubaFish802 · Nov 2, 2020

saltyhog said:
Mine does this if I or any tank inhabitant moves sand near the entrance of his cave. Yours either is considering a move or has some other territorial interest in that area. Mine has a secondary entrance he also keeps clear.

Perfectly normal behavior from this species.

My Purple Firefish stays in a small cave inside the rock it dumps most of the sand on at night. Any chance that is related?

Otherwise it makes sense that it may move, it is still relatively new to the tank. I didn’t realize they were such builders. I was expecting it to hide in the rocks most of the time (not that I would prefer that).

Angel_Anthias lover · Nov 2, 2020

My black cap does this all the time, quite cool to see what hes building. He'll grab shells and algae and stuff to bring back to his den to decorate it lol