new firefish

[mattmku]

i acclimated my new firefish tonight...about 10 seconds after adding the fish it swam to the sand bed right next to a rock and in a puff of sand it dissapeared. Theres a small hole leading under the live rock that suspect it burrowed under. Could this be the case?

[packfan2204]

probably, the firefish are known cave dwellers

[Jonathan G.]

yea, my friend has a few and i see them sometimes but most of the time they are hiding

[lando]

give it time, it will come out once it is acclimented to it's surroundings. I have a purpl firefish that did the same thing. Now he is out all of the time and spends his days suspended in the middle of the tank.

[mattmku]

i'm just worried he'll die in cave an i'll never get to see him

[Ximat]

I just traded in my damsel's for a firefish. He swims arround quite a bit, but every now and then I cat him hiding in the borrough with my Sleeper Goby. They are friends

[SquishyFish]

We ordered 4 firefish online..they all did exactly the same thing yours did. 4 weeks later we had only seen one..and that was few and far between. Then, all of the sudden, they decided to come out and play. We thought they were dead for sure. Give them time...

[mattmku]

i guess i'm lucky then...about noon today he came out for a few minutes. For a while he hid when anyone entered the room, but now he is out pretty much all the time. What is normal behavior for a firefish? Hes pretty much suspended in the center of the tank kind of flipping or clicking his spike (or whatever you want to call it). I'm guessing this is pretty normal though. I already love this fish, a great addition to my tank.

[mattmku]

also, what is best to feed him? Will he eat flakes? I have some formula 1 but other than that my food choices are very limited...thats southwest kansas for you.

[RocketSeason]

My firefish spent the first day in the rock. Now she is out all of the time, but she still sleeps in the same hole at night. Give it some time, she will be out when she decides its time.

Isn't nature so cool!

My Firefish loves formula One. She likes it shredded up really tiny, but she also loves it chunky.

she won't touch the Formula two. I usually create a blend of One and Two when I feed and she pics what she wants.

[mattmku]

tonight my lights turned off and i noticed the firefish had immediatly moved to the top of the tank...within 2 seconds it backed up about two inches and then exploded out of the tank. Luckily i had cardboard in place just for that reason. After colliding with the cardboard it kinda layed beside some rock like it was in a daze or dead. moved my hand close to it and it sped into its hole. It was crazy, I bet if the cardboard wasn't there the fish would have flown 5 feet in the air.

I don't really want to add a glass hood becasue it seems to block my lighting. I think I'm going to cut some plexi glass to lay around the edges of the tank. Will this hurt the fish if he hits it? Any other suggestions?

[stusclan]

try egg crate. It allows the light in but also keeps the fish in. A plexi lid might allow your tank to heat up too much. Egg crate allows the air to circulate.
Good Luck!

[mattmku]

i think i'm just going to break down and add a glass top...my friend has one and he's going to let me try it out for a while. Also i tried to feed with flakes and he'd put suck them up and spit them out. I'm going to try some formula 1 later and if that doesn't work i'm giong to get some dried mysid shrimp.

[Ximat]

I fed mine Zooplankton and she loved it!

[mattmku]

I found this post about a jawfish concerning jumping right after i turned off the lights in the photo gallery. I assume it is the same with my firefish:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photop...cat=527&page=1

scuba_steve

lesson learned with this guy cause ive owned a few !! its better to add them first imo !! some can be rather nervous to say the least !! once they make there home the settle down alot but to keep them from freaking out dont turn off ya lights all at one time !! the tend to freak and might jump out of the tank !! so i turn off the day lights and then 30 min the antinics go off also have found they love the small shells(half small clam shells) ya find on the beach cant give thm enough

There is no possible way i can have my 10,000 K lights off 30 minutes earlier than my actinics. It is on a timer and they always go off at the same time. Will he get used to the lights turning off or will he continue to try to jump every time the lights turn off?
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[RocketSeason]

Mine freaks out a bit sometimes when the lights go out. she hops along the bottom. Does your 10,00k have a seperate power cord from your Actinics? 2 different times would work great.

Also, try a glass hood. I have one and It works just fine and doesn't block the light at all. (make sure to keep yours clean of course.)

[emoezekielsr5]

Yeah, thats spot that your firefish dug himself into is his "bolt" hole. Thats his kind of like safe zone. You should go liveaquaria.com. they have some good info on firefishes. BTW, mine did the same thing, but he did not burry himself in the sand. It took him a day or two to finally comeout and eat some frozen mysis.