Fire fish concern

[Joe Fish]

I know they are carnivorious fish and I see it says to feed them brine shrimp. What about blood worms and the flake food I fed my damsels?

Will the brown aglae that is in my tank now eventaully turn to an algae that most fish will graze on? I got a algae bloom because when I was vaccuming I wasn't paying attention and sucked up about a quart of good sand. So I just replaced it with the washed play sand I had. Well shortly after adding that I add a horrible aglae bloom. I'm hoping it goes away and returns as a edible one.

Is it normal for a firefish to immediately find a hinding spot in a new tank? I haven't seen my new fishies for about 2 hours now. Would they hide in the rocks? Or the sand? I moved my rocks around to see if I could just find them, but I couldn't.

 

[aresgod]

leave them be, they are nervous, firefish are extremely skittish, also from now on, don't add anything to your tank unless it is stable, algae bloom = not stable. Feed mysis, not brine, brine is nutritiously the equivalent of cheetos.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

yeah mysis all the way.

 

[wayne]

Blood worms and flake are fine, better than brine, though bloodworms are pretty much 99% water as well.
I would think it concidence you got a nasty brown algaeafter swapping good sand for play sand as frankly there's little difference between the two. Silica sands do not cause algae blooms. Hopefully if you do a decent job the brown algae will disappear.
If your firefish is hiding (most do) leave it be to settle down. Hope the damsels haven't hassled it enough to make it hide to death, or to make it jump...

 

[Joe Fish]

Nope, I took the damsels out before putting them in. I did test the water and both nitrite and ammonia are 0. The brown algae is starting to go away. I checked again this am and I still cannot find them anywhere. I just hope they didn't get stuck in a rock somewhere. How long should I give the two guys before I go searching? I know they were pretty spooked at the LFS. The LFS had to completely take the tank down and even take the UGF out of the tank to get them. I almost was going to say I didn't what them, but felt bad because they did all that to get them. I think for now on I'm going to drive an extra 20 minutes and go to the better LFS.

Can I put a new bag or aragonite ontop of my existing DSB? I know it's still fairly new, but I know some sand bags say not to add ontop of a existing bed.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

maybe vaccum your old DSB the mix it with the new ( better be same grain size )

 

[KahluaZzZ]

i added substrate with no problems except a temporary cloudiness.

 

[Joe Fish]

I guess i'm not too worried right now about my sand. It's still faily deep. I just want to find my two new fishies.

 

[fish outa wata]

I added half of a bag of aragonite recently to my dsb and used a funnel/tube combo to get right to the bottom and it drastically reduced the cloudiness. Everything is doing just fine.

 

[Joe Fish]

I might just have to do that. I would say one more 20 or 30 lbs bag would do my DSB good. Then I'd have a good 5" DBS. Good news is I seen both of my firefish hiding out today. They haven't been coming out when I feed is that normal?

 

[fish outa wata]

they are really skiddish. My dsb is about the same. I love watching the snails trek through it.

 

[Joe Fish]

Anything I can do to get them to come out? They were out and about at the LFS.

 

[Lorna]

Give them time. They need to be comfortable, my bet is they are coming out at night.....Is your tank in a busy area of your house? constant movement passing the tank will make them skittish when new too, they will become accustomed to it eventually. Try enticing them with some really good mysis such as Piscine Energetics it is frozen and has a higer protein content than most mysis....most fish can't resist it.....crack for fish

 

[Joe Fish]

Thanks Lorna I'll get some of that. My tank is behind my bar and right now sees no traffic unless i'm looking for them either before or after work. I seen one this am with just his tail sticking out. Their only tank mate is a cleaner shrimp and snails and hermits.

 

[FishGeek]

That might be just it. There is no other fish there to make it feel safe for them. What size tank is it?? They will eventually realize that its ok but with it just being them it will take a while.

 

[Joe Fish]

It's a 55 gal. I read that chromis will help shy fish come out, but I don't want those things in my tank. I heard they can be as bad as damsels. I'm looking for a lawnmower blenny or a pistol shrimp goby pair or 2 oc clowns, but I was told to add them last.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

chromis are damsels...but they're kinda peaceful usually. Very different behavior than yellowtails. Cool fish to have, they always catch leftovers and swim at the top of the reef.
They grow extremely fast.

 

[Joe Fish]

Do you think I should add one or two? Or would they just turn out to be a problem? The only damsel experience I have were my yellowtails and yes, they were mean. Are chromis as hard to catch?

 

[Lorna]

Chromis should be kept in odd numbers but I wouldn't add them. Get a pair of clowns and the blenny, that should bring them out......

 

[Joe Fish]

Came home today and they were out and about. I'll wait a little before I add any more fish. I just got a auto fish feader, and a Seio 620 gph powerhead. I doesn't feel like 620 though??? Is that because it's coming out of two exhausts instead of one?

If I only have the two firefish one cleaner shrimp and a couple hermits and snail just how much food should I be putting in the tank. I just got a nitrate test kit and it was around 25. So I did a 5 gallon water change, but I'm wondering if I'm feeding too much.