Fish being timid

[Slocke]

I'm yet to notice any aggression in my tank but I do have the opposite problem with two different fish.

1. I have a mated pair of firefish and one, just one, is absolutely terrified of my Midas blenny. I've never seen any aggression from the Midas and I work by my tank so I'm watching it several hours a day. But every time the blenny comes anywhere remotely close to the firefish it bolts.

2. A couple of days ago I added a checkerboard/marbel wrasse to my tank. It swam around for abou half an hour than got spooked and hid in the sand. This morning I saw it finally emerge. It zoomed around the tank got spooked and dove back into the sand.

Any suggestions?
Is this normal for a new wrasse?

 

[Steve and his Animals]

1. Once you said filefish and once you said firefish. If they're filefish, what species? Generally, filefish are pretty timid regardless of species until they get established. Firefish even more so, especially in smaller groups. Midas blennies' movements sometimes spook timid fish in my experience. What size is the tank?

2. Yes, it's normal for wrasse to hide a lot when first introduced. Especially sand divers. I've had leopard wrasses reappear in a tank after hiding in the sand for a week straight.

 

[Reeferjunkie]

Could try adding a Mollie as a dither fish plus good for algae

 

[Slocke]

1. Once you said filefish and once you said firefish. If they're filefish, what species? Generally, filefish are pretty timid regardless of species until they get established. Firefish even more so, especially in smaller groups. Midas blennies' movements sometimes spook timid fish in my experience. What size is the tank?

2. Yes, it's normal for wrasse to hide a lot when first introduced. Especially sand divers. I've had leopard wrasses reappear in a tank after hiding in the sand for a week straight.

1.Firefish sorry
Fixed it and its a standard red one
110 gallon and the firefish were added long before the blenny

2. Is it normal for them to come out for a few minutes and then dive back into the sand?
It just came out again!! This time the melanurus chased it. They seemed to get on at first...

 

[Slocke]

Could try adding a Mollie as a dither fish plus good for algae

A dither fish?

 

[Reeferjunkie]

A dither fish?

The term dither fish refers to an arbitrary group of aquarium fish, commonly used by aquarists, to help reduce innate timidity and aggression as well as to promote normal social behaviour in the other fish housed within the same aquarium.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Dither fish are your fish like tetras, mollies, chromis, etc. which naturally are active and swimming around all the time. It tells nearby fish that it is safe and no predators are near. If they aren’t swimming around, something is wrong. The concept works better with the bigger fish. Most dithers would wind up scaring a firefish.
Makes sense that a firefish is hiding - those things are scared of their own shadows. Perhaps adding more rock for cover will make it feel safer.
Can’t help with the wrasse though, having never kept one before.

 

[Dave1993]

midas blennys are very well known to harass firefish so something may be going on when u are not looking

 

[SlugSnorter]

midas blennys are very well known to harass firefish so something may be going on when u are not looking

likely fighting for den space IMO.

 

[Slocke]

As I said it is only one firefish and they have completely different homes with the blenny preferring the holes in rocks at the top of my rock work while the firefish use holes at the bottom of the rock work in the sand.

I don't know its strange. Right now all 3 are in the middle of my tank getting on swimmingly. The Midas blenny is a strange fish and I can see it being mistaken for an eel and spooking a wimp like my firefish.

 

[Slocke]

Dither fish are your fish like tetras, mollies, chromis, etc. which naturally are active and swimming around all the time. It tells nearby fish that it is safe and no predators are near. If they aren’t swimming around, something is wrong. The concept works better with the bigger fish. Most dithers would wind up scaring a firefish.
Makes sense that a firefish is hiding - those things are scared of their own shadows. Perhaps adding more rock for cover will make it feel safer.
Can’t help with the wrasse though, having never kept one before.

Interesting. I don't keep any schooling fish (chromic, anthias, etc) because I don't find them very attractive and most seem to have aggression or feeding issues.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

1.Firefish sorry
Fixed it and its a standard red one
110 gallon and the firefish were added long before the blenny

2. Is it normal for them to come out for a few minutes and then dive back into the sand?
It just came out again!! This time the melanurus chased it. They seemed to get on at first...

I assume by checker wrasse you mean Halichoeres hortulanus. Same genus as the melanurus, so they probably won't coexist perfectly unless they were introduced to the tank at the same time.

 

[i cant think]

I'm yet to notice any aggression in my tank but I do have the opposite problem with two different fish.

1. I have a mated pair of firefish and one, just one, is absolutely terrified of my Midas blenny. I've never seen any aggression from the Midas and I work by my tank so I'm watching it several hours a day. But every time the blenny comes anywhere remotely close to the firefish it bolts.

2. A couple of days ago I added a checkerboard/marbel wrasse to my tank. It swam around for abou half an hour than got spooked and hid in the sand. This morning I saw it finally emerge. It zoomed around the tank got spooked and dove back into the sand.

Any suggestions?
Is this normal for a new wrasse?

New wrasses can go into hiding for a while, coming out then swimming around then back into the sand bed. As for the melanurus, they should get along if there is only one male and the other is female/juvenile. Some Halichoeres are more skittish than others but the Hortulanus isn’t skittish most of the time. This could be stress from not being in a large enough tank (These wrasses get big and pretty much always swim) or it could just be from being a new wrasse in the tank - Most likely option 2 as it’s not been a week of being in the tank.

As for the fire fish and aggression, fish behave differently when you’re watching them. You may not see aggression but there is most likely going to be aggression going on especially if they’re only scared of the Midas. I didn’t see any aggression but now my fish known I’m not a threat and they behave normally, I can now spot any small outbursts of aggression that may not last long. In rare cases they do last a couple minutes.

 

[Slocke]

I assume by checker wrasse you mean Halichoeres hortulanus. Same genus as the melanurus, so they probably won't coexist perfectly unless they were introduced to the tank at the same time.

Thanks
I couldn’t find much about the hortulanus other than the liveaquaria which did say it gets on with other wrasse but that was the only thing I saw. It would make more sense that similar species don’t get along.

 

[Slocke]

New wrasses can go into hiding for a while, coming out then swimming around then back into the sand bed. As for the melanurus, they should get along if there is only one male and the other is female/juvenile. Some Halichoeres are more skittish than others but the Hortulanus isn’t skittish most of the time. This could be stress from not being in a large enough tank (These wrasses get big and pretty much always swim) or it could just be from being a new wrasse in the tank - Most likely option 2 as it’s not been a week of being in the tank.

As for the fire fish and aggression, fish behave differently when you’re watching them. You may not see aggression but there is most likely going to be aggression going on especially if they’re only scared of the Midas. I didn’t see any aggression but now my fish known I’m not a threat and they behave normally, I can now spot any small outbursts of aggression that may not last long. In rare cases they do last a couple minutes.

very helpful thanks

Hopefully the wrasses will get along. I may try and catch one and put it in an isolation box for a couple days. My tank is a 110 with a lot of swimming space and the marble wrasse is 2-3 inches. The melanarus is a little longer and quite chunky.

i do doubt Aggression from my Midas, it’s a very placid fish. From what I’ve seen it just seems that every once and a while the wimp of my two firefish will bolt when it sees the Midas. But definitely could be wrong.

 

[Slocke]

I solved the mystery.
I pulled out the melanarus who was bullying the hortulanus. Just to find the hortulanus bullies the firefish.
One fish has managed to mess up the whole balance of my tank.

 

[i cant think]

I solved the mystery.
I pulled out the melanarus who was bullying the hortulanus. Just to find the hortulanus bullies the firefish.
One fish has managed to mess up the whole balance of my tank.

Hortulanus is a rather more aggressive species of wrasse and one of the larger specimens. That explains why it was more aggressive to the fire fish (Timid fish are often more susceptible to aggression).

 

[Slocke]

Yep, I'm seeing that now.
But it sure was a wimp with my Melanaurs. Though the melanarus is the fattest healthiest fish in my tanks.

I'll give it a few days. If it continues the hortul will either get sent back to the LFS or get the eel tank. (Not as bad as it sounds, the eels aren't fish eaters but the tank is smaller)

 

[i cant think]

Yep, I'm seeing that now.
But it sure was a wimp with my Melanaurs. Though the melanarus is the fattest healthiest fish in my tanks.

I'll give it a few days. If it continues the hortul will either get sent back to the LFS or get the eel tank. (Not as bad as it sounds, the eels aren't fish eaters but the tank is smaller)

How big is the eel tank?
The Hortulanus gets 8-9 inch in most cases and swims a lot. I’ve kept many of the larger species of wrasses including H. garnoti and H. chloropterus adults and they’ve been rather similar in aggression.

 

[Slocke]

It’s 50gal but I’m planning on upgrading. Also my LFS happily takes fish that grow too big but that will be a while as it’s only 2-3” now.