Why is my Half n Half Chromis hiding????

[ecugman]

I've go a 46g bow front with 50# LR. Tank has been up 2 1/2 months.

Ammonia = 0

Nitrites = 0

Nitrates = 10

PH = 8.2

Salinity = 1.022

I have 15 Red Legged Hermits, 15 Turbo / Margarita Snail, 10 Scarlet Reef Hermits, 1 cleaner shrimp - just added these last week.

1 Arrow Crab, 1 Half N Half Chromis - have been in the tank about 4 weeks.

Now the problem - The Chromis has spent the last 2 weeks behind my live rock hovering near the substrate. He was comming out to eat until about 1 week ago, now he never comes out. Just sits there about 1" of the substrate, he has active fin movement but that is about all i can see.

I ordered 1 True Percular, and a Royal Gramma just before the H & H stopped coming out. The LFS are holding these for a couple of weeks for me because I don't want to add them to the tank until I find out the problem.

Anyone have a possible diagnosis?

Thanks

g

 

[TampaReefer]

Can you force him out to get a look? Just for overall physical appearance?

 

[ecugman]

Not without taking out my LR. I was trying to avoid that, but I may have to.

 

[ecugman]

I moved my LR around and coaxed him out. The only things about him that look unusual are he has lost most of his color (maybe from me chasing him around the LR) and he(?) has a slight red/pink color around the gills. He's now hiding under a piece of LR in the front of the tank, if he stays there at least i can keep an eye on him.

 

[ecugman]

If my water parameters check out OK, and there is no physical sign of trama or disease in the chromis, do you guys think it's OK to add my clown & gramma?

 

[ecugman]

Do you think the arrow crab may be harassing him. They seemed to get along well in the beginning, but the arrow has gotten HUGE since he was placed in the tank. When the chromis did come out yesterday he and the crab had a little standoff.

The fish has now retreated behind the LR again.

 

[Emperator]

Chromis's should be kept in schools. If they are kept alone, they will be very very shy and not come out much.

HTH

 

[Tanu]

Like emperor said, they should be kept in schools. Next to that, as being the only fish in the tank, he might feel 'lonely'.. I observed this many more times: fish shouldn't be kept by itself..

In the past, I kept only 2 or 3 fish in my 50 G tank (royal gramma, yellow tang, blue mandarin). They acted very shy. Now, I keep higher ammounts of fish (17!) in my 50 G reef, all fish, even the normal shy ones, are visible the most part of the day.

I advice you to get the two others, as well as some more chromis..

Tanu www.tanu.nl

 

[ecugman]

I had not thought about that! I'm still not sure about that arrow crab, caught him eating one of my snails this morning. He may have to go!

If i get a couple more H & H Chromis, do you think they will they school with the one i have now?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Tanu]

I don't have experience with the H&H chromis myself, so I can't tell you wether they'll school or not. I am sure though, that the one you already have will come out more and feel more happy..

I strongly advocate keeping fish with more than one individual pro species, they aren't monks, so, they don't have to live celibatical

How often and how much do you feed your tank? Well fed animals are a little more polite to each other, this also works with arrow crabs

Tanu www.tanu.nl

 

[ecugman]

With only one fish and an arrow crab i was only feeding twice a day, omega one flakes (7-8 flakes) or Seaweed Selects Red Marine Algae (one 2" x 3" piece). This was enough for the fish as he only ate 3-4 flakes at a time, the rest would settle to the bottom for the crab. Since adding the clean up crew a couple of weeks ago they have cleaned ALL the algae from the tank. Maybe this left the arrow a little hungry.

Gonna add two more Half N Halfs and feed more often.

Thanks for all the assistance.