Urgent - fire fish hiding

cyberCoder

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Hi, Please help. I made a mistake today as I decided to siphon the sandbed, and I haven't done this for a few months. It's a 7 months old tank that has 4 corals ( 3 LPS and 1 softie ) , 3 fishes ( Fire fish, clownfish, blue demselfish . Before I noticed ( not sure what I was thinking ), the water was quite cloudy.

After a few hours, the water settled and cleared up. All the corals seem ok, and the clownfish and blue demselfish seem normal so far. But the fire fish hasn't come out. At night, once the lights are out, the fire fish typically hide inside some rocks that it's almost impossible to find. And it normally comes out around 1-2PM. But it's 5 hours after that, and it hasn't come out. All snails seem fine too.

I worry that the fire fish already died or it's quite stressed. I did a water test , and this is the parameter :

Ammonia : 0, Nitrite : 0.05 ( used to be 0 ) , Nitrate : 1, Phosphate : 0.02 , PH : 8.22 , Alk : 8.57 , Salinity : 1.0255

What should I do? Should I go through each rock hole to find it , which is quite hard to see at all. Is there a better way?

Should I wait through tonight?
 

CindyKz

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That's a pretty normal response for a firefish. They are very timid. I wouldn't worry just yet.

I remember the first reef club meeting I had at my house, everyone was standing around my fairly new tank. I freaked out because my pretty Helfrich firefish was no where to be seen. 2 hours after the meeting ended, there she was :rolleyes:
 
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cyberCoder

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This fish very timid.
Keep an eye on the potential bully....Mr Blue Damsel!

Thanks, actually this has been an issue and I lose likely two fishes because of this. Very sad moment that made me nearly given up.

I had a post earlier about it. It actually started with the clownfish first. One time, I actually caught it bite with the firefish. They actually bite each other head to head. Ever since then, i didn't see much about it. I am still seeing the clownfish and damsel kind of charge to each other, but they won't really hit each other. Sort of threatening each other. The firefish always stays at the back of the aquarium behind the rock, and the other two fishes are always in the front.

For now, I have stopped adding fish as I want to wait for another several months. And you are right , i don't think this is done.
 

Dine

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I wouldn’t do anything but go back to your normal routine. Best thing you can do is leave the tank alone for now and he will come back out once he feels safe again. Good luck!
 

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