Royal Gramma playing dead?

kingkapoor · Oct 11, 2019

I got a royal gramma yesterday, acclimated him and added him to my 15 gallon (parameters are perfect).

He went into the rock work, today he didnt come out during feeding, then I see a body hiding in the rock. I went to grab it, thinking hes dead but its too deep in the rock for my finger to reach, stays in the same position though. ,
I went up to get girlfriends tweezers, and 30 seconds later he is MIA from that entire area? Is he alive and playing dead

Richard Newman · Oct 11, 2019

Hi @kingkapoor. In my short experience the gramma's are rather skittish. Ours hid for the first several days when we put him in. There are times where he won't come out. Same with our firefish. They tend to stay hidden most of the time. That is except when it's close to breakfast/dinner time and I'm standing in front of the tank. It's rather hilarious. Especially if I've pulled out the pellets. From all corners of the tank, all 5 fish will be present and front and center. Now if I could only get them to clean their room too...lol

Give your gramma time and once he gets used to his new surroundings he'll come out.

ca1ore · Oct 11, 2019

Leave it alone and give it time to settle in. ‘Playing dead’ may be a precursor to being actually dead, or it may simply be freaked out.

j.falk · Oct 11, 2019

My last one stayed inside of holes in my rocks for roughly a week. After it got used to the new tank, it was out all the time. My advice: Leave it alone. It will come out when it's ready. The more you mess with it...the more you'll stress it out and potentially cause problems.

kingkapoor · Oct 11, 2019

j.falk said:
My last one stayed inside of holes in my rocks for roughly a week. After it got used to the new tank, it was out all the time. My advice: Leave it alone. It will come out when it's ready. The more you mess with it...the more you'll stress it out and potentially cause problems.

Definitely dont want to mess with him, I know that from past experience. Werent you concerned about it being dead and causing ammonia spikes in your tank?