Fire fish caught in overflow box!!

savetheocean · Oct 29, 2017

I have a built in overflow box thats attached to the corner of my tank. When I was setting up my tank I took this flap off revealing a small sized hole so I could get more waterflow through the sump. The quarter size hole is only underwater when the return pump is on and the water level is high - a small fish (Like a firefish) can get sucked in there. (THAT HOLE DOESNT LEAD DIRECTLY TO THE SUMP, IT ONLY LEADS TO THE 2 GALLON CHAMBER THAT DRAINS INTO IT). Long story short its fins got really cut and now they look very frayed. After about 5 minutes of trying to net the fish, I got it back in the DP and it swam right into its cave. I woke up this morning and only saw one of my firefish not the other. Its obviously very stressed out, weak, and injured so its resting (Or dead). I am going to try to feed in an hour or two and see if he comes to eat. Is there anything I can do to help this little guy recover faster?

I bought him at the store with his tail bitten off and I healed it with good water quality and high quality food, poor little guys gonna have to go through it again..

eatbreakfast · Oct 29, 2017

In many cases after something traumatic, firefish will stay hidden in their bolt holes for quite some time, upwards of a month in some cases. If your tank conditions are such that it had already been able to heal itself, then I would be hopeful that it will make a full recovery this time.

savetheocean · Oct 29, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
In many cases after something traumatic, firefish will stay hidden in their bolt holes for quite some time, upwards of a month in some cases. If your tank conditions are such that it had already been able to heal itself, then I would be hopeful that it will make a full recovery this time.

Thank you,

When I first added the firefish, I had to feed them and hide so they couldnt see me. They wouldnt eat if I was watching them. It took me a while to figure out what was going on there. I was thinking about going to my local fish store today and buying a fish or coral - would that cause too much stress?

eatbreakfast · Oct 30, 2017

savetheocean said:
Thank you,

When I first added the firefish, I had to feed them and hide so they couldnt see me. They wouldnt eat if I was watching them. It took me a while to figure out what was going on there. I was thinking about going to my local fish store today and buying a fish or coral - would that cause too much stress?

I would give it a week or two to allow the firefish to settle back down.