TriggerFinger
2500 Club Member
I’ve had a starry blenny for 10 days now and I’m curious about the behavior of new fish.
I picked him up from a lfs who had him in copper for 30 days. His coloring was pretty muted at the store and I assumed that was from the copper. I don’t know what levels they try to keep but I’m sure it wasn’t a consistent level since there’s so many tanks plumbed together.
Salinity was .018 at lfs and I adjusted my tank to .023 to acclimate him so there wasn’t such a huge jump in salinity.
The bag floated in the tank for 20 mins and then I dumped it and the bag water into a bucket and started drip acclimating. Drip went on for 45 mins; salinity matched but temp was 3 degrees off. Couldn’t get the bucket temp up, heater wouldn’t fit in the bucket and I was late picking up my daughter so I scooped him out with a strainer and put him in. He was mostly white in the bag, bucket and for about 24 hours in his new tank. He didn’t eat anything I offered for about 4 days. I ordered live blackworms in a panic and he decided the day the worms came that algae pellets are fine but worms are not.
So, 10 days in my tank now and he hides from me most of the time still. I can’t get a good look at him to see if he’s losing weight, if he’s got stringy poop...he’s a chicken ****.
When I feed him he chases the pellets at lightning speeds, takes them to the same spot behind a rock and kinda chews them and spits them out. I don’t know if that’s normal, if he’s anxious bc I’m watching him, if the pellets are too hard? That one sounds ridiculous but it was a thought.
He’s the only fish in a 30 g with live rock and 9 hermits. I fed heavily at first trying to get him to eat and now I’ve got film algae on the glass, which he cleans off daily so I’ve backed up the feeding amounts.
Basically I’m just wondering if this is typical behavior for a new fish and is there anything I can do to coax him out more? He was in a tank with a butterfly at the lfs...does he need a (non-butterfly) friend to feel safe??
I picked him up from a lfs who had him in copper for 30 days. His coloring was pretty muted at the store and I assumed that was from the copper. I don’t know what levels they try to keep but I’m sure it wasn’t a consistent level since there’s so many tanks plumbed together.
Salinity was .018 at lfs and I adjusted my tank to .023 to acclimate him so there wasn’t such a huge jump in salinity.
The bag floated in the tank for 20 mins and then I dumped it and the bag water into a bucket and started drip acclimating. Drip went on for 45 mins; salinity matched but temp was 3 degrees off. Couldn’t get the bucket temp up, heater wouldn’t fit in the bucket and I was late picking up my daughter so I scooped him out with a strainer and put him in. He was mostly white in the bag, bucket and for about 24 hours in his new tank. He didn’t eat anything I offered for about 4 days. I ordered live blackworms in a panic and he decided the day the worms came that algae pellets are fine but worms are not.
So, 10 days in my tank now and he hides from me most of the time still. I can’t get a good look at him to see if he’s losing weight, if he’s got stringy poop...he’s a chicken ****.
When I feed him he chases the pellets at lightning speeds, takes them to the same spot behind a rock and kinda chews them and spits them out. I don’t know if that’s normal, if he’s anxious bc I’m watching him, if the pellets are too hard? That one sounds ridiculous but it was a thought.
He’s the only fish in a 30 g with live rock and 9 hermits. I fed heavily at first trying to get him to eat and now I’ve got film algae on the glass, which he cleans off daily so I’ve backed up the feeding amounts.
Basically I’m just wondering if this is typical behavior for a new fish and is there anything I can do to coax him out more? He was in a tank with a butterfly at the lfs...does he need a (non-butterfly) friend to feel safe??
