Fire Fish Hiding

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

My tank is a 120gal and has been running since early August. I've had 2 Fire Fish in the tank for probably a month and a half now. They were best buds for about a month then one started being territorial towards the other. Last Saturday I added a Yellow Eye Kole tang to the system. Those are the only fish. They all did great for a day or two. Starting Monday morning the two Fire Fish have been hiding. The tang hasn't shown any aggression towards the Fire Fish, she has just been checking out the tank and swimming around. The Fire Fish have not been coming out to eat in the morning or at night. Is this behavior some thing other people have witnessed? I'm sure they will eventually get so hungry they will come out, hopefully tonight. I know one of them has not eaten in 2 days, not unless food is making it's way into the cave it hides in and he is eating in there. Any thoughts?

Duke4Life · Oct 26, 2016

Had this happen just recently after my move. My red was out and about and then poof I didn't see him for close 2 a week. Mine was hiding in a spot that food would drift by. When my purple did this though it died. Fish can go a bit without eating, so a few days isn't much.

mache62 · Oct 26, 2016

I currently have 3 in my 180g. 2 of them swim together and sometimes the 3rd guy joins but a lot of the time he stays towards the back. I have definitely found having 3 to be better than 2 though. There doesn't seem to be the same amount of aggression this way.

andys · Oct 26, 2016

well i have 12. and they hide pretty much all the time in my tank. from time to time they pop out cruz the tank and back to hiding

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

Duke4Life said:
Had this happen just recently after my move. My red was out and about and then poof I didn't see him for close 2 a week. Mine was hiding in a spot that food would drift by. When my purple did this though it died. Fish can go a bit without eating, so a few days isn't much.

mache62 said:
I currently have 3 in my 180g. 2 of them swim together and sometimes the 3rd guy joins but a lot of the time he stays towards the back. I have definitely found having 3 to be better than 2 though. There doesn't seem to be the same amount of aggression this way.

andys said:
well i have 12. and they hide pretty much all the time in my tank. from time to time they pop out cruz the tank and back to hiding

Thanks folks for the input! Hopefully they will come back out soon. I've never seen this with fire fish before, and have had this combo of fish before too. Again this is a different behavior than what I've seen in the past. Thanks again for the input.

mache62 · Oct 26, 2016

andys said:
well i have 12. and they hide pretty much all the time in my tank. from time to time they pop out cruz the tank and back to hiding

12!? That's awesome! How big is your tank?

andys · Oct 26, 2016

mache62 said:
12!? That's awesome! How big is your tank?

108 in the display

Empress · Oct 26, 2016

fragit said:
My tank is a 120gal and has been running since early August. I've had 2 Fire Fish in the tank for probably a month and a half now. They were best buds for about a month then one started being territorial towards the other. Last Saturday I added a Yellow Eye Kole tang to the system. Those are the only fish. They all did great for a day or two. Starting Monday morning the two Fire Fish have been hiding. The tang hasn't shown any aggression towards the Fire Fish, she has just been checking out the tank and swimming around. The Fire Fish have not been coming out to eat in the morning or at night. Is this behavior some thing other people have witnessed? I'm sure they will eventually get so hungry they will come out, hopefully tonight. I know one of them has not eaten in 2 days, not unless food is making it's way into the cave it hides in and he is eating in there. Any thoughts?

Before you put in the tang, were the firefish eating?

Coralguy16 · Oct 26, 2016

I have one that didn't make an appearance for over 2 weeks when introduced to my tank. I never even saw him eat for those 2 weeks so I wouldn't worry too much.

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

Empress said:
Before you put in the tang, were the firefish eating?

Oh yeah, like little pigs. They were in there for about a month, no problems.

jd371 · Oct 26, 2016

I recently added 2 Wrasses to my tank and since then my Fire Fish went into hiding. He stayed hidden for a few weeks until a week ago when he started to come out during feeding. He mostly comes out now just at feeding time but I do see him pop out once and a while for few seconds swim around and shoot back into his hole.

Empress · Oct 26, 2016

fragit said:
Oh yeah, like little pigs. They were in there for about a month, no problems.

Could they be afraid of the tang?

Empress · Oct 26, 2016

Also, did you quarantine the Kole tang prior to putting him in with the fire fish?

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

Empress said:
Also, did you quarantine the Kole tang prior to putting him in with the fire fish?

I think they are just afraid of the Kole Tang. I did not QT this fish, I know I'm taking a gamble. However she was QT'd at my LFS for a month with no issues. Was in a 4 tank coral system with 4 other fish who had been with the LFS for that amount of time or longer. I am very confident that she is disease and pest free. I have my QT tank set up and ready to go, for any new comers.

Duke4Life · Oct 26, 2016

Dart fish in general can be skittish.

Empress · Oct 26, 2016

We can't always trust our LFS. Just keep an eye out and be ready with CP/Copper just in case. Hopefully they're just a little skittish as Duke said from your newcomer. Keep us posted.

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

Will do, they were being skittish right from the moment she went in the DT. I'm sure that is all that is going on. I was just wondering if anybody else had seen this happen before.

fragit · Oct 26, 2016

Well one of them came out at feeding time[emoji106]. Looks to be in pretty good shape. It's tail is a little shredded but otherwise okay. To sure what happened there. It was hiding in a pretty tight spot. Or maybe my one hermit found it. There are no bristle worms or anything like that in there. I used dry rock.

eatbreakfast · Oct 27, 2016

Firefish can be sensitive to changes. In this case, the addition of the tang. Even though the tang has no interest in them, it is still larger and active and intimidating to the firefish. Having more, oitgoing, peaceful fish in the tank will help to draw them out.

The tattered fins may be from the other firefish. If they are not a bonded pr they grow increasingly intolerant of one another.

fragit · Oct 27, 2016

Both fire fish were out first thing this morning. Both ate and are leaving each other alone. @eatbreakfast will they eventually pair like clowns? Or are they destined to be family members that hate each other?