Do fish get depressed?

J

Jeremy1988

New member
Hey guys...so I when I first started reefing about a year ago I got a scissortail dartfish, and then my second fish was a yellow clown goby. Well as of late my Yellow Clown goby has caused lots of problems with my acro coral and other SPS. So I removed him and he is currently in quarantine. Well the next day my scissortail is hiding! This fish is ALWAYS out...always! My other fish that were added later on seem to be doing just fine. Any possible way he is depressed. I seen his head, he looked at me and then seem to bury himself in the pukani rock as to say "I'm upset with you"...I have not done a water change, nothing! And the goby only took me 10 mins to get out. He wasent even that stressed, I just scooped him up no problem against the glass. I didnt move any rock work or nothing, it was a perfect capture!
 
I say they do i had to pull fish out slowly to go fallow. I noticed certain fish acting sad cuz there buddies where gone
 
I say they do, some years ago I had a breeding pair of angelfish (freshwater) that when the female died the male refused to eat and he died shortly there after. As to the fish behavior in the post, its possible that the scissortail has gone into hiding due to the lack of activity from the dither fish and fells uncomfortable in an uninhabited tank. If you put the clown goby back in you may see the scissortail come back out, or if you decide to put another fish in there. Either way some added fish activity in the tank should draw it back out.
 
Who knows? Search for research on the topic. Humans invariably anthropomorphize their pets. I'd not think fish would have the higher brain functions to be 'depressed' - probably just basic fight/flight.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone, I currently have a small tomini tang, blue assessor and tanaka pygmy wrasse. Technically the last thing added was a rainford goby about 2 months ago that starved to death unfortunately, and before that the tomini tang, who is a model citizen. I think some of you guys are right. I think they probably were buddies, but the scissortail maybe just needs a few days to feel like other fish are swimming around. That yellow clown goby was always moving around the tank and I know at night seemed to sleep next to the dartfished den...sucked to the glass.
 
Jeremy1988 said:
Acro coral, and rainford goby like 2 months ago, like that your a DENVER fan! Elway is cleaning house again with the coaching staff, hope it all pans out like last time :)!
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I live in Boulder so supporting the broncos isn't a choice, it's a lifestyle :)

Glad to hear your dartfish is doing better.


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Jeremy1988 said:
Hey guys...so I when I first started reefing about a year ago I got a scissortail dartfish, and then my second fish was a yellow clown goby. Well as of late my Yellow Clown goby has caused lots of problems with my acro coral and other SPS. So I removed him and he is currently in quarantine. Well the next day my scissortail is hiding! This fish is ALWAYS out...always! My other fish that were added later on seem to be doing just fine. Any possible way he is depressed. I seen his head, he looked at me and then seem to bury himself in the pukani rock as to say "I'm upset with you"...I have not done a water change, nothing! And the goby only took me 10 mins to get out. He wasent even that stressed, I just scooped him up no problem against the glass. I didnt move any rock work or nothing, it was a perfect capture!
Click to expand...

Jeremy1988, darthfish are naturally very timid and wary fish. These fish generally have a hole under a rock that they "dart" into when they sense danger. The issue is when they are inside hole, they cannot know if a predator is waiting just behind the hole, out of the fish's view of sight. So they rely on other small fish around to make sure a predator in not nearby. Since they prefer to go out when other small fish are around, many people use fish like chromis to encourage dart/firefish to come out and swim in open.

In your case scissortail most likely relied on the clown goby to provide a sense of security. When goby was missing scissortail might have thought it is hiding from a nearby predator. To make the matters worse, sudden disappearance of the goby might have intimidated it due to the fear of a nearby predator that ate the goby.
 
Tripod1404 said:
Jeremy1988, darthfish are naturally very timid and wary fish. These fish generally have a hole under a rock that they "dart" into when they sense danger. The issue is when they are inside hole, they cannot know if a predator is waiting just behind the hole, out of the fish's view of sight. So they rely on other small fish around to make sure a predator in not nearby. Since they prefer to go out when other small fish are around, many people use fish like chromis to encourage dart/firefish to come out and swim in open.

In your case scissortail most likely relied on the clown goby to provide a sense of security. When goby was missing scissortail might have thought it is hiding from a nearby predator. To make the matters worse, sudden disappearance of the goby might have intimidated it due to the fear of a nearby predator that ate the goby.
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Man...your a smart guy...or girl. Dang...that makes complete total sense! I never thought of it that way but it makes much more sense, and is logical. See this is why these forum sites are good to use! I can totally see that, yeah he's doing much better now, and is out like he use to be. I'll be adding a pink skunk clown here in a few weeks. I may introduce the goby back in there...that acro just STNed to death, I tried fragging it, no luck. So I may just decide to not keep ACROs. Hey since were on the dartfish here. You know anything about the Blue Gedeon lyretail dartfish? Would him and the scissortail get along you think...I dont think they would try and share the same den would they? I have a 90 gallon, lots of LR/hiding places. I think there is enough real estate left for him to find a home. I currently only have a blue assessor, scissortail, small flame fin tang, and tanka pygmy wrasse. I will eventually add the clownfish, but I wanted just 1 more fish to CAP my stocking. Its either that if compatible? Or a tailspot blenny...
 
Jeremy1988 said:
Man...your a smart guy...or girl. Dang...that makes complete total sense! I never thought of it that way but it makes much more sense, and is logical. See this is why these forum sites are good to use! I can totally see that, yeah he's doing much better now, and is out like he use to be. I'll be adding a pink skunk clown here in a few weeks. I may introduce the goby back in there...that acro just STNed to death, I tried fragging it, no luck. So I may just decide to not keep ACROs. Hey since were on the dartfish here. You know anything about the Blue Gedeon lyretail dartfish? Would him and the scissortail get along you think...I dont think they would try and share the same den would they? I have a 90 gallon, lots of LR/hiding places. I think there is enough real estate left for him to find a home. I currently only have a blue assessor, scissortail, small flame fin tang, and tanka pygmy wrasse. I will eventually add the clownfish, but I wanted just 1 more fish to CAP my stocking. Its either that if compatible? Or a tailspot blenny...
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In terms o compatibility scissor tail and Blue Gedeon should be okay in a tank of that size. But I would be surprised if they share a den. There might be some aggression at first between them but they will eventually claim their own territories. After that they will most likely try avoid each other as much as possible. Even paired firefish are hard to keep as a "pair" ...after some point one starts to bully the other and one day that bullied fish disappears. Also keep in mind that if you have an aggressive fish in a tank that bullies the new additions, adding timid fish like dartfish is hard. They might go into hiding due to the aggressor and starve to death.
 
I would say that fish can get depressed.
Not exactly like humans, but still depressed.
Depression is basically caused by imbalances in the brain chemistry. It doesn't really require intelligence or thought.

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Tripod1404 said:
In terms o compatibility scissor tail and Blue Gedeon should be okay in a tank of that size. But I would be surprised if they share a den. There might be some aggression at first between them but they will eventually claim their own territories. After that they will most likely try avoid each other as much as possible. Even paired firefish are hard to keep as a "pair" ...after some point one starts to bully the other and one day that bullied fish disappears. Also keep in mind that if you have an aggressive fish in a tank that bullies the new additions, adding timid fish like dartfish is hard. They might go into hiding due to the aggressor and starve to death.
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Thanks Tripod...you must have kept Dartfish before, man your hitting the nail on the head! I had the same exact problem almost a year ago. I bought 3 scissortail dartfish to have a trio from Blue Zoo. Well one was a DOA...so I decided to keep the other two in quarantine. Well like you mentioned the one was able to eat but was clearly not as bold as the other. Well I decided to continue forward and put them together in the DT. Well like you said, the one sort of bullied it until it just stayed hidden...didnt eat and after about after 3 months I just stopped seeing the one fish. So the remaining dartfish is the one we are talking about. As far as tank mates...I believe that wont be a problem. I have a model citizen flame fin tang, blue assessor, tanaka pygmy wrasse and the scissortail...the pink skunk will be in there eventually but not as of now. So I think he would probably go a couple of days without eating but would be okay. However I believe these particular darts are hard to find??? Seems that way.
 
Tripod1404 said:
Jeremy1988, darthfish are naturally very timid and wary fish. These fish generally have a hole under a rock that they "dart" into when they sense danger. The issue is when they are inside hole, they cannot know if a predator is waiting just behind the hole, out of the fish's view of sight. So they rely on other small fish around to make sure a predator in not nearby. Since they prefer to go out when other small fish are around, many people use fish like chromis to encourage dart/firefish to come out and swim in open. In your case scissortail most likely relied on the clown goby to provide a sense of security. When goby was missing scissortail might have thought it is hiding from a nearby predator. To make the matters worse, sudden disappearance of the goby might have intimidated it due to the fear of a nearby predator that ate the goby.
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Very good information
 
I'd say hell yeah because my one died of suicide. Rammed himself right into my one pump! Awful mess.
 
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