New Snowflake Moray tank mates will not leave him alone

cdnco2004 · May 20, 2023

I posted about this in the regular fish forum should have posted it here. I got a young snowflake just moved him out of QT and into the DT. I have three Athinas and a Racoon Butterfly that will not leave him alone. They act like they think he is a cleaner fish. The present to him constantly to the point that they will lay on his body or press their bodies up against his face. They wont leave him alone. If I ever want to know where he is I just look for the Athinas and sure enough thats where he will be. I am worried they are going to stress him out even more than already is from the move to DT and new environment. In the vid bellow you can see how the Anthinas swarm him. The very start of it you see the coral beauty presenting to him then swiming off. The only fish that would not bother him were the Mollies, but I moved 2 of the 4 out of that tank last night. You can even see in this clip one of the Anthinas laying on the back half of his body. Should I be conserned about this behaviour?

Video via Google Photos for Mac/Safari users: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5PjB7ioxxe3YAMTX9

flagg37 · May 20, 2023

I had a zebra moray, so a bit more docile than a snowflake but I would put a pvc pipe in there to give him a hiding place so he can get away if he’s feeling stressed. How’s he doing as far as eating? He may be searching for food.

Here’s the home I made for mine.

cdnco2004 · May 20, 2023

If you look in that video you can see one of three ends of his pipe works. He has ignored the pipe completely. He spends all his time in the rock work only briefly poked no more than an inch of his head and neck into it then ignored it since.

lion king · May 20, 2023

The tell will be if he eats, did you establish a strong feeding routine before you put him in the dt? If he gets overly stressed he could retreat to the pvc. If he hides in the pvc and does not eat, then there would cause for concern, otherwise it will work itself out.

cdnco2004 · May 20, 2023

He was eating after a few days in Qt. Has not wanted to eat yet in DT but only went in yesterday. Now he spends time mostly in three different spots. Not seeming to upset. Not swimming constantly outside of when he was first exploring the tank and looking for escape points. Then settled down by end of the night. Now he chills in those three places and moving between them every now and then. Is breathing easy.

cdnco2004 · May 20, 2023

Maybe my rock work is good enough he does not care about this pipe work. He used them in QT. Right now he is in an inner cave I have in the center of the larger rock grouping right now. Most of the time he is in one of the two outer caves.