Firefish aggression

Paloma’s · 2026-06-29T20:30:20-0400

Hi! I have a 50 gallon tank which includes an exquisite firefish, two clownfish, a longnose hawkfish, a Tailspot blenny, and recently a carpenter wrasse.

I was under the impression that the firefish would be shy, however it actually bosses around the other fish, including the clownfish

. All of the other fish are very peaceful to each other.

The wrasse is staying in one corner of the tank to avoid the firefish which I have seen chase it a few times. It doesn’t have any injuries or anything, but was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for how to deal with the firefish. It has only been a few days since the wrasse was added to the display, so maybe it will venture around the tank more in a couple of days.

Saltyreef · 2026-06-29T20:52:01-0400

Ive noticed the purple, exqusite and helfrichi are on the aggressive side vs the red firefish.

christinna77 · 2026-06-30T03:43:17-0400

My purple firefish used to fight with my blue assessor pretty often. One time the assessor even ended up with a torn fin. But later on, the tables turned and the firefish became the one getting bullied instead (and ended up getting rehomed).

Bear22 · 2026-06-30T08:07:59-0400

I have an Exquisite in my tank and he's definitely the tank boss. He's very gentle around the other small goby tankmates and will even let my Neon goby do some cleaning in small spurts.

However, my Hector's goby for some reason gets on my Exquisite's nerves and he will not tolerate the goby getting in front of him and will chase the Hector's off is he does.

Interestingly, the Exquisite allows my blue coral-banded shrimp to be his cave mate.