Poor firefish

[Starrhm]

I just got this cute little Helfrich's firefish today along with a swissgaurd basslet. The poor little firefish is being harassed by my orchid dottyback. The strange thing is he's not hiding, he just swims around and the dottyback goes up and takes a jab at em. Them he runs and then swims like normal.

Will the dotty stop poking at him? I can't catch the darn thing otherwise I would separate them for awhile. I don't want it to get killed. Why doesn't the firefish hide for awhile like the basslet is doning?

I guess maybe it was a dumb decision on my part to put the two of them together.

[sloveday]

Can only comment from personal experience, but tried same combo, and took the basslet back, wouldnt leave either my firefish or purple fire alone....

[Starrhm]

I have had this dotty for over a year. He's been through one move and a tank upgrade. It is my 4 year olds favorite fish. Maybe I should get the firefish out if possible? So saddd I love them both. The basslet doesn't seem to bother anybody yet.

[Starrhm]

Now the poor firefish is sitting in the bottom of a corner and my brittle star keeps going after him. Ever see a brittle star go after a live fish. I guess Ill for sure have to take that fish out now. I order this fish online it cost me $200 what do I do with it. If it dies they probably won't garantee it because it was harassed and I can't just return it.

This definitetly SUCKS!! I think I'm gonna cry!

[Starrhm]

I am offically crying along with my daughter. I just went to remove the firefish. When I got to the tank the star was curled in a ball. It was eating my new fish! What an expensive ****ing dinner!

I am such a dumb *** I should have taken the fish out sooner, maybe I could have saved it.

[ignite1402]

so sorry to hear that... btw do ur tank have enuff LR?

[Starrhm]

I have about 150 lbs of LR in a 75g.

Now by basslet is being harrassed to the point he's hiding behind my overflow box.

Anybody know any fish I can put with this mean dottyback? I would like to have a few more but don't know what It'll tolerate. I have:

2 black clowns
1 watenbe angel
1 mean orchid dottyback

[ignite1402]

wad type of tank u intend to have? FOWLR? FO? reef?

[Peter Schmiedel]

The orcid dottyback is the Pseudchomius fridmani - right?

Then it is rather easy to sex the fish you have.

Male: Has a kidn of sword on the lower end of the tail fin
Female: No sword an normally more round in the belly area

Do him ( her the favor and give him the partnber he is missing and you will see he / she will relax a bit.

Anyway if they have eggs (which they have easy in a normal tank) you have to take into consideration that they might be a liitle aggressive again.

My personal decission would be:

* add partner
* add at the same time more fish you desire (taking tank set up and space into consideration)

BTW, really bad for the N.helfrichi .. here in Europe I have never ever seen this fish!!!

[EdKruzel]

That was one very expensive dinner indeed.

The behavior you witnessed is normal for a starfish. The large brittle & serpents will often raise themselves like a small canopy for fish to hide under.
Once underneath the star wraps around the fish and devours it.

A few other fish to consider would be from the following families:

Hawkfish
Cardinals
Butterfly
Grunts
Some other types of Wrasse

Take care,
Ed

[gophia]

Did you say you paied 200$ for a firefish

In any case the Pseudchomius family of fish are bullies and will pick on more timid species such as your firefish.

Sorry about you expensive loss.

[Starrhm]

Update here:

I took the swissgaurd basslet out. it was getting beat up. I went to my local lfs and got the following fish: (very cheap this time I also get a discount at this store.)

1. foxface
2. brazialian gramma
3. lawnmower blenny

Everything seems to be fine. My dottyback doesn't pick on anyone.

Could the fish I got mail order have been overstressed from shipping or not in good health to begin with?

I know it's not good to add more than one fish at a time, but I thought that if the dotty was going to be aggressive it would be better spread out. Maybe it helped that I was able to pick out fish that were bigger than it. The filefish and basslet were very small. I like some of the more hard to find fish, but I don't think I will ever purchase mail order fish again. I have never had a problem with corals though.

I would still like to have firefish. I guess that will have to happen later down the road in a new tank or something!

[nodtroll]

well that sucks but in my case which i have a diadema dottyback he did the same thing till i put a hippo tang and a yellow tang in there after that he calmed down and it seems that no matter what i put in there now he just hides behind my hippo.
my piont is getting a tang just might help calm him down it worked in my case it just might work in yours too