Purple Firefish suddenly hiding

[dugthefish]

The Nemateleotris decora I've had in 125g DT for several weeks has always spent most of his day hovering around as expected. 4 days ago he was nowhere to be seen for the day, darted out towards the end of feeding for a few bites, and returned to his hole. Last 3 days he hasn't been seen, until I shined a flashlight in and saw him. Not sure if the artificial light made him look pale, but he was definitely breathing very slowly but steadily for the 60 second observation.

Gets along with all his tankmates, most recent addition was a rabbitfish 3 weeks ago who has shown zero interest in the dartfish. No visible illnesses on other fish, tank is currently fighting dinos.

Last week I finally began dosing calcium, enough to raise 5ppm/day, and yesterday I began dosing NO3 to 5ppm. All other tank parameters are in the normal range, as expected.

Any thoughts?

 

[dugthefish]

Secondary question: should he at some point need to be removed (dead or alive), how the heck would I get him out of a 1/2" hole in a large base rock that is not coming out of the tank?

 

[Jesterrace]

Might be a bit of an overdose if it's breathing hard.

 

[Jesterrace]

Secondary question: should he at some point need to be removed (dead or alive), how the heck would I get him out of a 1/2" hole in a large base rock that is not coming out of the tank?

Do you have any hermit crabs? If you do they will find it and pull it out in the open to feed. Mine pulled my purple out into the open for me after it died (as well as my Mandarinfish).

 

[dugthefish]

Do you have any hermit crabs? If you do they will find it and pull it out in the open to feed. Mine pulled my purple out into the open for me after it died (as well as my Mandarinfish).

Ahh, good call. I knew there was a reason I had to put a couple scarlet legs in there.

 

[dugthefish]

Might be a bit of an overdose if it's breathing hard.

Overdose of what? Not breathing hard, just a bit slower than normal.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Slow breathing is fine. If breathing were an issue it would be much faster, not slower.

Firefish can get spooked for any number of reasons, active tankmates, too much activity around the tank, changes in social dynamics, etc.

Worst case scenario, if it died in the tank, a firefish will not have any noticeable effect on tank parameters.

 

[jd371]

My Firefish goes into hiding with every new addition to the tank. The longest I lost sight of him was a month and I thought for sure he must of starved to death, but when he finally appeared he looked fine with no signs of losing weight. Right now he's hiding along with my Rainford Goby and only come out to feed because the Falco Hawkfish has decided to start chasing them.

 

[dugthefish]

My Firefish goes into hiding with every new addition to the tank. The longest I lost sight of him was a month and I thought for sure he must of starved to death, but when he finally appeared he looked fine with no signs of losing weight. Right now he's hiding along with my Rainford Goby and only come out to feed because the Falco Hawkfish has decided to start chasing them.

I kinda thought this might be the answer, since they're kinda scaredy cats as a species. Seems odd that he decided to hide with no additional livestock, but I'll just keep an eye on his hole (nice that it's easily viewable!). Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

[Nathan Milender]

I agree, I have a red and purple. The purple is more skittish than the red but they are both babies. They will show up when I turn the pumps off for feeding no matter what I am doing. Usually they wait for the clown goby to start eating and when nothing grabs him they go get some food. I would not worry yet, plus, even if you do worry what are you going to do? I doubt 5 ppm of calcium did anything to your fish.

 

[Sod Buster]

Mine only comes out of the hole when all pumps are off for feeding. A ghost fish for sure. I moved 2 small rocks next to its cave & didn't see it for a week. That made me name it "grumpy" along w/ the mouth stripe that looks like a frown.

 

[Justin Allen]

I’ve had one for 3 years that hides in the rocks until feeding then comes out and back in

 

[Nathan Milender]

Mine only comes out of the hole when all pumps are off for feeding. A ghost fish for sure. I moved 2 small rocks next to its cave & didn't see it for a week. That made me name it "grumpy" along w/ the mouth stripe that looks like a frown.

Don't forget the japanese anime angry eyebrow!

 

[dugthefish]

Update: last night I could see him sitting very close to the entrance of the hole, observing the tank. Pretty sure he actually grabbed a bite of food even. Today I found his partially eaten body just outside his hole. Crabs ate enough that I couldn't tell what actually killed him. Bummer.

 

[Jesterrace]

Update: last night I could see him sitting very close to the entrance of the hole, observing the tank. Pretty sure he actually grabbed a bite of food even. Today I found his partially eaten body just outside his hole. Crabs ate enough that I couldn't tell what actually killed him. Bummer.

See, those little red hermits ARE VERY GOOD at their work, as morbid and terrible as it is to lose a fish, I would rather have something that pulls a dead or near dead fish out into the open then have to tear apart the rockwork to try and find a dead fish.

 

[Thaxxx]

Get him a mate.

 

[Jesterrace]

Unfortunately, it died.