Insane glass surfing - what to do ?
- Thread starter Idech
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Reefering1
Valuable Member
Hmm, that's interesting... perhaps that's why they go end to end, chasing a reflection that's always in front of them rather than fighting in one spot like with a actual mirror? But no, they wouldn't be seeing themselves in the reflection @90*. But mine will definitely not do it if the glass is very dirty, they must see something. Hmm, very interesting...
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Lol, no. The inside of the aquarium glass is not mirrored. If it was, you would see a mirror when you looked through the tank front to back or from one side through to the other side. The water adds the refractive effect when viewed from an angle.
Reefering1
Valuable Member
Guess I need to get a tank big enough that I can climb inside to fully understand this
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Idech
2500 Club Member
If I’m looking from side to side, that’s not 90 degrees, is it ? Rather 180 ?
That’s too dense for me to read and understand tonight. I was never good at physics either so I wouldn’t dare try to argument…
One thing is for sure, whatever the phenomenon is called, my fish sees something in the glass that triggers aggression or excitement. And creates obsessive behavior.
When I put the egg crate, it would still surf up and down over the 1/2 inch of glass that wasn’t covered by the crate. So the attraction is really in the glass.
If it's glass surfing intensely, then something is stressing it, but I wouldn't expect it to be food.
Have you tried literally lighting up just the outside of the tank where the tang glass surfs? It sounds like you've already partially tested this, but another possibility for the light/reflection thing:
Have you tried literally lighting up just the outside of the tank where the tang glass surfs? It sounds like you've already partially tested this, but another possibility for the light/reflection thing:
As I mentioned in my initial post, these reflections appear when one side of the glass is brightly lit and the other side is much darker.
So, to get rid of the reflection, try lighting up the outside of the tank and see if that helps. One way you could do this is by running some LED strips around the outside of the tank so that they light up the glass. This thread might give you some more ideas too:
Moorish Idol attacking reflection
Added a Moorish Idol into my tank maybe 3 months ago now, knock on wood he's been great so far and made it through QT like a champ. In the last 2 days though I noticed he's starting to constantly attack the left side of my tank, like adamantly fighting with what I assume is his reflection. I...www.reef2reef.com
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
^^^^^
Thank you! You beat me to it.
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Idech
2500 Club Member
I haven’t but I will give it a shot tomorrow. And also try blocking the lighter side instead of the darker side, as you suggest.
Here you can see reflection on the right side, where the fish surfs. You can clearly see the powerheads and firefish have relections.
If light "bends" going into the water then it also must "bend" coming out, and at the interface of the water/glass/air outside the tank.
What does the fish see, or what is it looking for?
I think it is trying to find a way out of the tank with the hopes of finding a suitable mate for routine spawning purposes.
Suggest feeding these less vitamins and more vegetables to help them chill.
What does the fish see, or what is it looking for?
I think it is trying to find a way out of the tank with the hopes of finding a suitable mate for routine spawning purposes.
Suggest feeding these less vitamins and more vegetables to help them chill.
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Idech
2500 Club Member
That makes sense.
This tang won’t eat nori but he gets lots of spirulina. I’ll slow down on the vitamins a bit but he needs to stay strong for the upcoming tank upgrading (that’s been delayed).
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
Yes, that's due to the refraction I posted about earlier. But the fish is not looking at the right side glass through the front glass. If you stand on the left side of your tank and look through the left glass to the right glass, there will be no reflection.
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Idech
2500 Club Member
Here is the tang glass surfing (turn your volume down, I was on hold on the phone).
I had to step away from the tank or else he came to be fed.
eta : I can’t seem to be able to post this video like I always do.
I had to step away from the tank or else he came to be fed.
eta : I can’t seem to be able to post this video like I always do.
Reefering1
Valuable Member
This is exactly what my tangs do if I put a mirror to my glass. Idk the science but I swear they see a reflection. I mean if I hold a piece of glass up, besides seeing through it, i can see a reflection of myself. Though not quite as vivid as looking at a mirror...
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Idech
2500 Club Member
No, I didn’t have a chance yet. Too much to do today.
I’ll report when I do it.
@KrisReef I kept thinking about what you said about the fish liking the right side of the tank. I had noticed it too a few weeks ago and started feeding in the middle, instead of this side. So far it hasn’t changed their behavior.
The cleaner shrimp hangs out on the other side, and so does the pistol shrimp. I wonder if they are just trying to avoid them? It’s kind of sad to have a big tank and the fish only use half of it.
It might not have anything to do with the tang surfing though.
@Reefering1 prompted me to take a second look at this in another thread, so I've been re-reading a bit and this got me thinking: I doubt the fish would be trying to avoid the shrimp (to my understanding, cleaner shrimp can annoy fish, but they shouldn't scare the fish to the other side of the tank; and pistol shrimp aren't aggressive like they're often portrayed to be, rather they really seem to just be defensive of their burrows, so they shouldn't scare fish to the other side of a tank either).
Since you mentioned in post 25 that when you covered the wall with egg crate the tang only exhibited the behavior near the small strip that wasn't covered, I'd expect at least the tang's glass surfing may be reflection-related (which lighting up the outside of the tank should help to confirm if that's the case), but that wouldn't necessarily explain why the rest of the fish hang out over there too (though it could potentially explain that as well).
That said, if the glass surfing doesn't stop/the issue isn't reflection-related, then that would indicate to me that the behavior is being caused by some kind of stressor (illness being one stressor that could potentially be the cause of it; aggression or environmental issues - in or out of the tank - being some other potential causes). That said, I'd imagine it would need to be a rather odd other issue to get a tang acting like that or to cause all of the fish to only swim in half of the tank.
To be safe, are any other fish showing signs of something being wrong, or is there anything you can think of other than the shrimp that might be driving the fish to that right side of the tank? How's the flow compare on both ends of the tank? Any fish breathing abnormally fast? Any oddball inverts (other than the shrimp) that might have taken up residence on the left side there? Have you changed anything inside or outside of the tank recently? How long have the fish been preferring that side of the tank?
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