Firefish acting differently

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 11, 2020

My firefish has been with me for a few months now. He is coming out more often and swimming to the top of the tank. He doesn't seem to hide anymore. Is this normal?

Mr_Knightley · Nov 11, 2020

As they get more and more accustomed to you they will begin exploring the tank a lot more, so this is definitely normal behavior. Nice job getting him so comfortable with you!

DinoMagnet · Nov 11, 2020

Fire fish are some paranoid little suckers, I’ve had mine for about 5 months and he’s still finicky ( but I guess that’s due to his mate being chomped by my dendro lol) Hard to feed him because he waits at the bottom towards his den for the food to get to him. So I have to wait til EVERYONE else calls it quits so he can get some.

DinoMagnet · Nov 11, 2020

xavier08 said:
My firefish has been with me for a few months now. He is coming out more often and swimming to the top of the tank. He doesn't seem to hide anymore. Is this normal?

But to answer your question yes that’s not alarming.

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 11, 2020

Mr_Knightley said:
As they get more and more accustomed to you they will begin exploring the tank a lot more, so this is definitely normal behavior. Nice job getting him so comfortable with you!

thanks

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 11, 2020

gabrielc714 said:
But to answer your question yes that’s not alarming.

thanks. I was just a little worried.

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 12, 2020

gabrielc714 said:
But to answer your question yes that’s not alarming.

he just passed away. any idea what happened?

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 12, 2020

Mr_Knightley said:
As they get more and more accustomed to you they will begin exploring the tank a lot more, so this is definitely normal behavior. Nice job getting him so comfortable with you!

he looked fine a few hours ago but when I came back home it died. do you think him acting differently is a cause?

Mr_Knightley · Nov 12, 2020

xavier08 said:
he looked fine a few hours ago but when I came back home it died. do you think him acting differently is a cause?

I'm really not sure on that one, sorry for your loss! @Jay Hemdal may be able to help out. Do you still have the body, or did you take any pictures?

Jay Hemdal · Nov 12, 2020

xavier08 said:
he looked fine a few hours ago but when I came back home it died. do you think him acting differently is a cause?

I agree that as fire fish get accustomed to a tank, they come out more, but I think the key diagnostic here is that you said it was going to the surface and that is NOT normal. This was a sign of distress. Was it breathing rapidly? What other fish do you have n the tank? Anything else acting differently?
Jay

freshwaterandmarine · Nov 15, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
I agree that as fire fish get accustomed to a tank, they come out more, but I think the key diagnostic here is that you said it was going to the surface and that is NOT normal. This was a sign of distress. Was it breathing rapidly? What other fish do you have n the tank? Anything else acting differently?
Jay

I only had another clownfish with it and both were eating well and looked fine. When the firefish was hiding I saw him breathing heavily. I think that before he died he stayed at the bottom of the tank. I was planning on adding coral soon.

AirIck · Feb 15, 2021

My firefish is now seeming to be aggressive towards his tank mates. I added a yellow watchman goby yesterday and ever since I added the new fish my firefish is now nipping my clowns and my goby. I thought firefish were to be peaceful. Is this common with a new fish being added or should I be alarmed? He never went after my clowns before until I added the goby. Now he’s going after anything that is in his line of sight. I’m getting concerned and wondering if I need to remove him before he kills the goby. My goby is extremely small

Jay Hemdal · Feb 15, 2021

AirIck said:
My firefish is now seeming to be aggressive towards his tank mates. I added a yellow watchman goby yesterday and ever since I added the new fish my firefish is now nipping my clowns and my goby. I thought firefish were to be peaceful. Is this common with a new fish being added or should I be alarmed? He never went after my clowns before until I added the goby. Now he’s going after anything that is in his line of sight. I’m getting concerned and wondering if I need to remove him before he kills the goby. My goby is extremely small

The thing about fish aggression is you never really know how things will go. I wouldn’t have expected you fire fish to go after everything else like that, but it obviously is! If fins are getting damaged, you should separate the fish with a divider for the time being.
Jay