Dear all
I have something I would like to discuss.
After many years away from the hobby the wife and I set up a new reef tank last march.
As we started it, all was good. Fish were active and out an about all the time.
We have 2 black and white clowns, two mandarins, 2 fire fish, a tail spoted blenny. Tank is IM SR80.
However, as time progressed the fish became more and more reclusive, to the point where we hardly saw our two fire fish for almost two months. We never saw any type of aggression.
At the end of last year the silicone on the back panel failed and we had to restart everything. We found the fire fish (skinny and looking deformed at the spine) under a rock still alive.
When we restarted the aquarium all became great again. All fish found their new hiding places but spent their time in the open. We also got a new and a very small pacific blue tang (to be rehoused later) that imidatly bounded with the clowns and spend all day with them.The fire fish fattened up extremely fast and no deformities could be see. And mostly, the fished hanged out in the middle of the aquarium together, eating like little pigs. However, a little over a month after restarting, the fish are slowly going back to be more reclusive. The fire fish hardly come out, even to eat, the pacific blue tang hides under the rocks if it sees us (I know its natural behavior for them) and even the clowns don't come so much for food (although they are out and about all day).
As I said before, 0 signs of aggression in the tank. The only fish that seem not to be affected by this are the mandarins (they just graze all day, oblivious of anything else).
I would expect the opposite behavior (hiding when large changes happen and slowly become more confident as time progresses).
As anybody experience this before? And if so, how did you dealt with it?
Any ideas of might be causing it?
Thank you all for any input.
Cheers
Kim
I have something I would like to discuss.
After many years away from the hobby the wife and I set up a new reef tank last march.
As we started it, all was good. Fish were active and out an about all the time.
We have 2 black and white clowns, two mandarins, 2 fire fish, a tail spoted blenny. Tank is IM SR80.
However, as time progressed the fish became more and more reclusive, to the point where we hardly saw our two fire fish for almost two months. We never saw any type of aggression.
At the end of last year the silicone on the back panel failed and we had to restart everything. We found the fire fish (skinny and looking deformed at the spine) under a rock still alive.
When we restarted the aquarium all became great again. All fish found their new hiding places but spent their time in the open. We also got a new and a very small pacific blue tang (to be rehoused later) that imidatly bounded with the clowns and spend all day with them.The fire fish fattened up extremely fast and no deformities could be see. And mostly, the fished hanged out in the middle of the aquarium together, eating like little pigs. However, a little over a month after restarting, the fish are slowly going back to be more reclusive. The fire fish hardly come out, even to eat, the pacific blue tang hides under the rocks if it sees us (I know its natural behavior for them) and even the clowns don't come so much for food (although they are out and about all day).
As I said before, 0 signs of aggression in the tank. The only fish that seem not to be affected by this are the mandarins (they just graze all day, oblivious of anything else).
I would expect the opposite behavior (hiding when large changes happen and slowly become more confident as time progresses).
As anybody experience this before? And if so, how did you dealt with it?
Any ideas of might be causing it?
Thank you all for any input.
Cheers
Kim
