Silly Fish

[alarmguy66]

My damsels do the silliest things in the mornings, I swear if they had hair they would have bed head. Im tempted to yank one out and see how bad his breath is. They are also all blotchy and sickly looking when the lights begin to come on. Then they slowly start swimming around, but....backwards? Really! All the way around the tank and up and down. They do this for 10-15 miutes, by then their color has returned to normal and they start acting like regular Yellow tail damsels. I wait till then to feed them. Maybe they need coffee in the morning?

Here is some data to see if I am creating the situation. New tank, but levels seem ok.

55 gal sw tank
pH - 8.4
Salinity - 1.023
Temp - 82
Ammomia - .25
Nitrite - .1
Nitrate - 2.5

Only fish in the tank are 2 damsels. 60 lb of sand and 2 normal rocks (no live rock, YET) these levels have all been very stable for the last 4 days.

Lights gradually come on at 11 am, stay on till 2 am when they begin to go off. A 4 watt nightlight keeps them from bumping their lil' noggins in the dark. This is a basement, so when the lights go out, day or night, its DARK!

Normal? or are my fish just not "morning people"?

 

[dralarms]

Like your handle, Do you work for someone wlse or do you own your own company?

 

[taryn2185]

I have one damsel at the moment, he/she sometimes looks lighter/paler when the lights come on in the morning. It generally goes away after getting used to the light, I've never worried about mine. I think it is normal...maybe not the swimming backwards thing...but like you I am new at this. I just know my damsel's color fades too! HTH

 

[possum]

most fish have what is called "fright colors" which is the color they turn when they are frightened and generally the same thing they do at night when they sleep to blend in better with their surroundings...