Folks w/ Firefish, do they eventually get more interesting?

[Jilly92]

I have an Exquisite Firefish (beautiful looking fish) and he's the most boring fish I've ever had. All he ever does is hang in the water column or hide.

He's about 3.5 inches long so he could be replaced by 3.5 inches of interesting fish! What's your experience, is this all I can expect?

Right now I'm leaning toward replacing his boring butt.

Mine are always in the front waiting for food to shoot through the powerhead and dart through rock holes which is pretty funny to watch. They will come all the way to the front of the glass and stare and say hey. I cant imagine not having my little pair.

 

[sacutshall]

So, now you have to keep her or become a homewrecker

 

[Pearse73]

I call my red firefish, "The Teenager". It doesn't appear before 11am and usually only when food hits the water. Then it goes to bed around 7pm.
And I love it. It's a stunning fish.

 

[NJBillyV]

Now that she has moved in with the goby I think you ought to try breeding the pair.

They do spend a lot of time in that little hole, you gotta wonder what they're up to.

Looking for living cartoon level interesting-ness? Get a starry blenny

Those guys look so cool, but can you put a blenny in the same tank as a goby?

 

[blitzkragz]

Those guys look so cool, but can you put a blenny in the same tank as a goby?

I have or have had 7 types of goby and the only fish I have seen my blenny go after is another blenny.

 

[fishface NJ]

Blenny will chase/bite firefish and goby

 

[blitzkragz]

Blenny will chase/bite firefish and goby

Those guys look so cool, but can you put a blenny in the same tank as a goby?

I would go by what @fishface NJ says. My experience with fish aggression might be skewed because of tank size.

 

[NJBillyV]

Blenny will chase/bite firefish and goby

Man I totally messed up my fish list. And what sucks is that I really put a lot of time into it, and still messed up.

I got a firefish that's boring. I got a YWG because I wanted the YWG/PS pair, but now I really want a Starry Blenny but apparently that's out.

This hobby is some kinda mind-fock at times ain't it.

 

[fishface NJ]

You could sell your goby and firefish to someone or to a LFS

 

[vetteguy53081]

They hide often and are talented jumpers
Monday when I fed there three fire fish and one purple one
Haven’t seen but one for a couple of months and thought there was one left

 

[Sharkbait19]

depends on what you keep with it. My firefish was my favorite and most active fish. The first week I had him he would hide all the time, but slowly he came out more and more. Eventually, he actually became my most active and entertaining fish, always coming up for food and following fingers and whatnot. I don’t know if tank size makes a difference, because I kept mine in a nano and it was out all day searching every square inch for food. Occasionally a crab might scare it and it would dart away, but otherwise I thought he was pretty neat. Perhaps purple firefish are more skittish??

 

[SMSREEF]

Mine is out all the time swimming around the tank and flicking his fin. He also is kinda cool when it gets into a flashing match with my clown or my orchid dottyback.
It’s certainly not a crazy fish, but I was looking for a more relaxed tank rather than fish fighting all the time.

 

[Silent]

About as exciting as watching coraline grow.

 

[Opus]

I wish I could answer that question. I've tried about a dozen over the years. Every one of them went and hid as soon as I put them in the tank and I never saw them again.

 

[wenliu51]

When I transferred my firefish from QT I thought it jumped out and went missing. I even checked the floors and underneath the tank with a flash light. A week later I saw it peeping out from a rock. What a boring fish!

 

[Pkunk35]

Have a pic of it? Can anyone sex them accurately? I'll buy it from you if we can be reasonably assured it will be a different sex than mine (i haven't found reliable info on how to do that).

I completely agree blennies will chase firefish, i had to let go of my midas because of this specifically.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Wow, I’m really surprised!! I didn’t know they could be so inactive!

 

[WvAquatics]

I never see my fire fish. Comes out for food then hides. Will come out if hungry to stare and get food. I added a diamond gobie last week. The gobie pushed it out of it's cave for a day. Moved all the sand and now they share the hole

 

[Sharkbait19]

Well tbh, it was only when I got my royal gramma that caused my firefish to always be out. The gramma just stole the cave and so the firefish decided to stay out all the time, even at night. Then the royal gramma got velvet and died, but the firefish still remained outside, because he just got used to it, and liked it better. So best I can say is actually to get something that would prompt it to come out (I.e. slightly more territorial fish, second firefish). I know they prefer live foods, so if you feed it live brine shrimp and stuff it may have the incentive to go out and hunt. Eventually, I actually got him to follow my finger when I fed him. Unfortunately, I did lose him to what I can figure was a mean emerald crab.

Btw speaking of a second fish, anothet firefish could work. you could always do a red firefish to confuse it or some other type of dart fish, that way there is a lessened chance of fighting. I’d avoid one of the same color though.

 

[NJBillyV]

Right now she's in my QT with just the YWG. Next week I dump them both into my new DT so we'll see if her activity increases. I'm curious to see if she continues to live in YWG's hole or will they split up.

The next fish in intend to add are: Snowflake Clown, Pink Stripe Wrasse, and last, Black Cap Basslet. Perhaps some more active fish will get her out and about, or maybe she'll just hide 100% of the time.

This is all my dang wife's fault, she picked the Fire-fish out in the first place because of how colorful it was, now she's lost interest and I'm stuck with inviso-fish.