Help me with my Royal Gramma - Too Much Flow?

[Hugo Garcia]

Hi guys, how is it going? So I’ve just added a Royal Gramma Basslet and a Tailspot Blenny to my Innovative Marine 30L tank. And they both keep hiding. The blenny I haven’t seen since, but the royal gramma keeps coming out evreytime I turn off the pump. So when the water is still it will come out. Is this normal? Do I have too much pump? I’m using a Sicce 2.0 pump, at the lowest power. So it’s less then 400 gph I believe. Is this too much? Or at something the fish will get used to it and come out?

Thanks

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

When you are turning off the pump, are you also feeding the tank? Royal gramma are natural hiders and prefer caves over open spaces.

 

[Hugo Garcia]

At first yes. But now I just turn it off and it comes out. Also the blenny was never seen again. If I keep the pump off for too long I’ll kill the tank, right?

 

[XNavyDiver]

I've had a RG from the start of the tank, and my impression is they're pretty shy. She would stay tucked away for long periods of time at first, but now she comes out more often. It just took longer for her than some of the other fish. Oh, and my tank has a stupid amount of flow, it literally tosses fish around and most all of them make a game of surfing he currents so I doubt its your flow.

 

[Mark Gray]

I think your flow is ok. I had a gamma in a 55 gallon with a sicce 7 wide open ratted at 1900 and hour maybe doing 1000 and hour and had a gyre 150 for slow at 50% he was ok I don't have him anymore but the fish will get used to it. I am one if you are not pinning your fish aginst the glass your flow is ok, Ocean currents are strong

 

[Hugo Garcia]

Thank you very much for your response! I feel much better about keeping a higher flow now. I’ll just hope that the fish will come out soon.

 

[Mark Gray]

Thank you very much for your response! I feel much better about keeping a higher flow now. I’ll just hope that the fish will come out soon.

It takes me a good while to get like zoos used to the flow in this tank, SPS loves it but Zoos take awhile but they do adapt.

 

[mta_morrow]

I had a royal gramma in my IM30L for 2 years. Always chilled in his cave until I turned the pumps off to feed, then he was everywhere! Turn the pumps back on and he was back in his cave. The last couple months before I tore down and moved he started cruising the tank when the moonlights came on. Beautiful fish!

 

[rkpetersen]

Agree, pretty sure that flow isn't the issue. Some basslets can be shy at first. I put a Blackcap Basslet into my high flow brightly lit tank. I knew that I shouldn't have, because these are shy deepwater fishes that hang out under ledges and don't like too much light, but I did it anyway because they're gorgeous and not as aggressive as some other basslets can be. Sure enough, it pretty much hid all the time for the first month, but it did come out to snatch as few morsels at feeding time. Now, 6 months later, it's out partying all day long and has increased in size by 50%. So give it time, yours will probably change its habits as well.