Hiding fish...when to worry?

[mudplo]

Hey all,

We moved our fish to a new, bigger tank about a week ago. The move went well and most of our fish are up and going. Unfortunately, our firefish and yellow watchman gobies have not been too happy with the move.

Both have retreated into the back of the aquarium and hide under the base rock the vast majority of the day. The watchman will come out occasionally and wildly swim up and down the back corner of the tank, and the firefish will come out for about three minutes, then retreat.

I have not seen either eat at all, although I'm intentionally overfeeding in hopes that some filters down to them.

Is there anything I can do to help this? I would hate to see them starve, but I'm afraid that forcing their hands would only make it worse.

Thanks again for any help, and I am anxiously awaiting your suggestions.

Clint

PS: All water levels are just fine. Salinity is a bit lower than I'd like (1.021 currently, raising it slowly from 1.015 when we got the tank) but temp/nitrate/nitrite/calcium/ammonia are all just fine. Our other fish are doing well also
PSS: The tank is well established (3+ years) and we brought over 80% of his water with the move, so I don't think chemistry would be much of an issue, other than the low salinity

[Mopar Reefer]

What are the other tank inhabitats? Maybe something is spooking them or they feel threatened? Yes you are correct you need to raise your salinity, preferably as qucik as possible, just not all in one day

[rayme07]

I would start worrying now. If the fish are not coming out and its been a week I would try to spot feed them and supplement their food with some garlic extract to try and get them out.

[thegrun]

My purple fire fish will stay in his cave for a month at a time (well, he sneaks out at feeding time), then suddenly decide to come out and hang with the boys for a month or two, then back to his cave. The fish are most likely fine, if they get super hungry, they will come out. They are likely getting food that falls into the rockwork, so I doubt they will starve. I would try to do some spot feeding, but they will most likely come out on their own. There is usually a few weeks of chaos when you switch tanks as the fish have to reestablish dominance and territories, the fire fish and golby are most likely staying out of the fray until things settle down.

[mudplo]

Thanks for the suggestions all.

As a quick follow-up, the other fish a juvenile hippo tang, mandarin goby, and green chromis (all of these seem to have no inclination toward agression at all). We have a juvenile False Percula who is an a$$hole to us, nipping at our fingers, but only gets aggressive to other fish within a couple inches of his anemone. Last, we have a large sailfin tang that came with the tank. He will "puff up" with his fins, but I have not seen the slightest hint of nipping or chasing any of our other fish.

Any idea why the Yellow Watchman would so frantically swim up and down along the wall? It seems to really stress him out when he's doing it...

Thanks again.

[roblikesfish]

No telling on the goby swimming but I am willing to bet the others that are hiding feel threatened by the new fish. That and on top of tank changing things can be crazy.

as other mentioned try to spot feed them and see if that helps... I personally would not be worried all that much yet... But I understand your compassion for your little water friends

[jbird69]

Originally posted by thegrun
My purple fire fish will stay in his cave for a month at a time (well, he sneaks out at feeding time), then suddenly decide to come out and hang with the boys for a month or two, then back to his cave. The fish are most likely fine, if they get super hungry, they will come out. They are likely getting food that falls into the rockwork, so I doubt they will starve. I would try to do some spot feeding, but they will most likely come out on their own. There is usually a few weeks of chaos when you switch tanks as the fish have to reestablish dominance and territories, the fire fish and golby are most likely staying out of the fray until things settle down.

+1 on the above info

I would curtail the overfeeding. No point in fouling your perameters to coax them out. Both of these species tend to set up a "lair" and if you change things around or move them, they are in a foreign environment and have to reclaim a lair. If they are healthy they should settle in in time.

If you are going to target feed, do it very sparingly, just enough to give them a taste. that way if they dont eat, it wont be a large mass of rot, and if they do, it will give them the urge to come join the normal feeding schedule. You dont want to give a healthy fish a reason to stay hidden, overfeeding or copious target feeding may cause this.