fish are extremely skiddidsh

[acw90]

I have a 29 gallon tank that i have been running for a little over two months now. i have 3 pieces of live rock in it for now, and a sand substrate. last sunday i added my first three inhabitants... (besides the inhabitants from the live rock and sand) to my tank first i added a 3 stripe damsel and a blue damsel, the next day i added a blue green chromis. as soon as i added the damsels they went straight for my heater and hid behind it. then eventually the blue damsel found the rock and fluffed up the sand under it and made herself a cave (which she has done with each of the three rocks in the tank.) and now the 3 stripe has taken refuge behind my filter tube. the chromis for the first few days was fine and just swam out and about no matter what...which is what all of them do when they dont see me walking around outside of the tank. but as soon as i get close enough to the tank they all hide now. I plan on getting two more chromis down the road because i know they are comfortable with a few to school. my question is.. is this healthy for the damsels to be so skiddish with me and will this problem.... if its a problem resolve itself. im not really to worried about it because they are eating fine but i would just like to be able to see them out my buddy has a blue damsel that almost never hides no matter what he is doing even with tank maintenance... i am afraid to clean the glass in my tank for fear that i will kill the fish out of stress. any advice for me.. sorry for the long post

 

[Jacobsal91]

Have you tested the water? They could be stressed due to a defect in the water parameters.. Maybe also add more rock to create more caves they can use for homes to make them feel more secure

 

[jeffaquarius]

Seems to be normal for new fish in tank. It will take few days for them to get used to their new home. Just so you know blue damsel is very territorial. Like Jacob says, you need to provide more caves for chromis to hide. PVC pipe 3/4 in couplings can be used temporarily until you can add more LR.

 

[JesseMessykinn]

Some fish just seem to hide, my yellow watchman goby will run in his cave, as well as my firefish if you make any quick movements. My Firefish more so then my goby.

 

[Ingy]

My firefish will hide when I enter the room. But he comes back out and will stay out once he relaxes again. Doesn't hide at feeding time. It just takes time and depends where your tank is. Mine is in my Living room where we spend most of our time.

 

[acw90]

thanks for all the replies and i plan on getting a bigger piece of rock here soon along with more rocks periodically

 

[mr_X]

Yes, more hiding places and it's early to worry. They should quickly learn what giant creature feeds them...