Firefish

[Guest]

Hi

Anyone know why i have no success keeping Firefish?

1 week ago went to LFS and brought a yellow tang and a Firefish. Keep them in sump for 2 days, and yesterday transfered them to the main tank. The yellow tang is doing fine but the Firefish die. I actually see it's last breath. It was doing fine, hiding in the rock, moving abit, then suddenly see it blown away by the current.

This is the 3nd Firefish i tried to keep, all die on me (in less than 1 week)

My tank was running for 4months already. Keeping butterfly, blue tang, sailfin... all was ok.

NO3 25ppm

kH 8.3

ph 8

po4 0.5

mg 1170

ca 420

Any advice? What's wrong?

[wil_lee76]

bro, imo...4 months of running still early. Your tank still look new and not mature yet. Be patience while adding. Also, did any LS that in conflict with your firefish? And any damages done to your firefish? Fins broken etc etc?

Sometimes, i believe that buying an unhealthy fish might affect your water parameters & your LS..which I encountered before.

maybe u would like to leave it in your sump and monitor for few weeks before adding onto the main tank in future. Wait till it fed and looks active.

Hope these helps!

[Guest]

bro, imo...4 months of running still early. Your tank still look new and not mature yet. Be patience while adding. Also, did any LS that in conflict with your firefish? And any damages done to your firefish? Fins broken etc etc?

Sometimes, i believe that buying an unhealthy fish might affect your water parameters & your LS..which I encountered before.

maybe u would like to leave it in your sump and monitor for few weeks before adding onto the main tank in future. Wait till it fed and looks active.

Hope these helps!

I had:

Red Diana Hogfish

Anthias

Auriga Butterflyfish

another Butterflyfish (not sure of name)

Yellow bottom Damselfish x 3

Clownfish

Blue tang

Yellow tang

Sailfin Tang

Yellowhead Jawfish

I did see abit of broken fin but not sure if got it before or after release to the main tanks. The body did have some black spot, but also not sure if it is the shadow from the rocks.

Come to think of it, maybe Red Diana Hogfish is the killer? or Damselfish? These 2 fish is the first few fishes i had. All my fishes are from the same LFS. Their fishes no good?

thanks

[cityofangels]

When you say 'Yellow Bottom Damsels', are they the blues ones with the yellow stripe at the bottom? They are aggressive little buggers. They may be the ones harassing the docile firefish. If you want to continue keeping firefishes, I suggest you remove the damsels.

Firefishes are easily startled as well. Provide lots of hiding places for them in your tank. And if your tank does not have a hood, these creatures are notorious jumpers! You may go home one day to find a dried up firefish on the floor, infront or at the back of your tank.

[Maxstar81]

cityofangels,

Sis .... On target ah.

My fire gobies jumped & kamikazi-ed x2.

Sad lah but lucky only S$3-4 for 1.

Now i put mesh over tank top since i don't have hood.

whoami,

black spots !?

Never seen on my fire gobies....

Sick ???

ME: Current owner of 1 pair fire, 1 pair decorated dartfish

[shoelevy]

don't mix these fishes with agressive ones

they're very timid and rarely will fight back against anyone who bullies them

these fishes never fight, they definitely love the "flight" (both in the escape from bully and in the jumping out of tank sense)

[Guest]

cityofangels,

You are right, the 'Yellow Bottom Damsels' are they the blues ones with the yellow stripe at the bottom.

Maxstar81,

black spots is more like black patch, on the body, not very black, just not white as the other part of the body. Then again can not be too sure, it was hiding in the rocks, maybe it's the shadows

Now have to think of way to catch Damsels, no know will catch it or not. tank big...

Hope this help, will try again after all the agressive fishes is removed. Really love Firefish.

Any other factor?

how about this Red Diana Hogfish? Remove it too?

[c0ol]

hi whoami,you can use a fishtrap to catch the damsels...i have caught mine with it

i released my yashia goby into my tank...now cant see it

dont know if its dead or not...haiz...

[manta]

hi, previously had the same problem of keeping firegobies.

solve my 1st problem by capturing the culprit: picasso trigger ,had them for french fries. it bit one new goby that was just released (30 secs flat)into 2 halves right in front of me.

the other problem: my leftover blue damsel with yellow tail will always harass and terrorized thiese timid gobies. no luck in catching this damsel.

lastly, same as for the other fishes, if you get them eating half the battle is won. usually most are too scared to come out to eat and starve to death if not beaten to death. seen it lost weight, super thin, shrivelled, starved then died.

my current batch (total 7)is surviving well. all eating and after 3 weeks, all 7 now got enough balls to come out and grab some food sometimes against even my tangs.

just to share. good luck.

me got 3 BT, 1 Sailfin, 1Kole, 1 Flameangel, 1 Blue damsel, , 3 Common clown, 2 fire colwn, 1 pink skunk clown, 7 firegobies.

[hondaker]

7 fire?

wow, must a nice sight, got time post pic for us to see ba

the sight should be magnificent

btw, all are red or mixture of red/purple?

[manta]

sorry no pics cause my tank not veri good looking.

battling algae and diatom lah. seems like losing battle, veri siong.

all 7 are red colour and they occupy the same hole/crevice . will try 2 add the purple ones next

a real interesting sight to see, when the lights go out, one by one take turn to slowly slide close to home, scan around and scamper double quick time inside.

always veri happy to see all 7 hovering loosely in a group in mid water cloumn scanning for food particles. every AM roll call in the center of tank.

i find that having so many helps as it disperse any unwanted attention from other fishes. hence will not concentrate all attacks on one poor fellow.

really like it so kept trying. this is my third try too. previously only get 2ea.

[Guest]

sorry no pics cause my tank not veri good looking.

battling algae and diatom lah. seems like losing battle, veri siong.

all 7 are red colour and they occupy the same hole/crevice . will try 2 add the purple ones next

a real interesting sight to see, when the lights go out, one by one take turn to slowly slide close to home, scan around and scamper double quick time inside.

always veri happy to see all 7 hovering loosely in a group in mid water cloumn scanning for food particles. every AM roll call in the center of tank.

i find that having so many helps as it disperse any unwanted attention from other fishes. hence will not concentrate all attacks on one poor fellow.

really like it so kept trying. this is my third try too. previously only get 2ea.

How do you feed the firegobies when they are scared? (with all the big fishes)

Put the food in small bottle and hope the go in?

Had one yellow head goby, seen it lost weight and thin, but was coming out eating the sand.

[zephyros]

feeding firegoby with aggressive feeder is a challenge

1) either u feed a lot at 1 shot such that there is left over drifting to the

firegoby OR

2) decoy east and hit west u make see ur firegoby swimming pattern

and feed at the right location.

diffeicult to target feed this fellow coz they easily scare n hid in LR

[manta]

for me is the mass flooding method.if not no chance at all cuz the bigger tangs are real aggressive during feeding. all are out in the open mid water away from LRs minus 1 still a tad anxious and it keeps closer to the hole. otherwise they are competing for food like the rest.

my tank has more swimming space, not so congested with LRs(intentional). perfer to see fishes.

the food disappears really fast. veri fast sweepers.

so overfeeding is a major causal factor in my algae breakout notwithstanding the lack of regular water changes (4X2X2.5 tank = backbreaking work scaping algae from side glass wall)due to being a bit too lazy and also busy at work(=o'seas).

but the funny thing is, all inhabitants are doing well. guess my tank is maturing.

colour as well as getting fat. so i try to leave it alone till cannot tahan anymore. everytime i change water, can see the stress on all. take a while to settle down.

oh, lastly food size try to match the gobies reqt. cuz they got no time to muck around as they are 'checking six' all the time during feeding.

apologies, veri 'chiong hei'. must be getting old. happy reefing to all.

[gunzo]

I had:

Red Diana Hogfish

Anthias

Auriga Butterflyfish

another Butterflyfish (not sure of name)

Yellow bottom Damselfish x 3

Clownfish

Blue tang

Yellow tang

Sailfin Tang

Yellowhead Jawfish

I did see abit of broken fin but not sure if got it before or after release to the main tanks. The body did have some black spot, but also not sure if it is the shadow from the rocks.

Come to think of it, maybe Red Diana Hogfish is the killer? or Damselfish? These 2 fish is the first few fishes i had. All my fishes are from the same LFS. Their fishes no good?

thanks

hi.. pair of firegobies n pair of purple gobies.. v nice

n its rite bout lfs quality n quantity.. 4 gobies now seldom being attacked by my devil's damsel.. buy 3-4 firefish.. sure ok wan.. then acclimatised liao sell off excess

my experience wif lfs.. certain lfs i buy the fish never last 1 week.. max 2 weeks.. certain lfs last from day 1 until now (lck 110 n auntie neighborhood shop )

[k0na_scab]

sorry ah , but what does the fire globy feed on ?

or what do u feed them with ?

pellets ? mysis ?

always wanted to keep a few , but my koran angel seems firece with newcomers

[gunzo]

junk eaters.. they eat anything i throw in..

use pellets n mysis mix since they are supposedly carnivorous

mine also love henry's mix.. shud see them eat..

[cityofangels]

If you're afraid that your smaller/timid fishes aren't getting their fair share of the food, perhaps you would like to try this method.

Diner

Find a bottle small enough so that only the small fishes can enter and not the bigger fishes, like tangs.

Hope it works!

[Ah-lim]

sorry ah , but what does the fire globy feed on ?

or what do u feed them with ?

pellets ? mysis ?

always wanted to keep a few , but my koran angel seems firece with newcomers

I juz got 2 firefish, 2 months old liao.

Been feeding Formula one marine pellet, so far so good.

However, they prefer the food to be suspending, so if my pellet reached the ground, they will not touch.....

So much feed a few pellet at a time to them...

but lately, I have this problem of the smaller one is spitting out pellet, like too solid or hard to swalllow??? The bigger one had no problem though.

[Maxstar81]

Agree with Ah-lim that they like suspended food.

Those that reach the bottom, my prawns will settle.

Feed slowly loh or my prawn will be obese

[Melvyn Tan]

Most gobies are short lived species ie. short life span.

The flame and purple dartfish or firefishes falls in this category.

Cleaner gobies are shortlived species too...

[gunzo]

Most gobies are short lived species ie. short life span.

The flame and purple dartfish or firefishes falls in this category.

Cleaner gobies are shortlived species too...

define shortlived ..

I have a firefish with me for about 4 months and it recently died on me

likewise I have firefish with me for 2 days / 2 weeks etc ..

same goes for flame goby .. but it seems like they are more difficult to rear than fire gobies

[Ah-lim]

So far so good, getting fatter each day, eating pellets, live sea monkey, even nori sea weed.

Feeding them with pellet is tiring

One pellet by one pellet, used to flood, then the floor too much food, stress....

So mixing firefish with their purple cousins will not pose any problem?

inter species whacking?

[Melvyn Tan]

If you keep the purple and flame together, you may get inter species breeding and result in Helfrichi Firefish...you should try...

[gunzo]

If you keep the purple and flame together, you may get inter species breeding and result in Helfrichi Firefish...you should try...

eh.. you're kidding.. right