help with foxface

jmareef1022

jmareef1022

New member
So I went to my lfs and traded some polyps and mushrooms for a small foxface.I told them I currently have a damsel,bicolor blennie and coral beauty.they said he'll be fine he'll stand his own ground he has spines.well my blennie keeps harassing him and picking on him.I really like this fish and would like for it to survive and be happy.also concerned in what to feed him.currently have some nori and spirulina with brine oh yea and also the macro algae that lives in my rock.afew months back I bought a two barred rabbitfish and died a week later he just wouldnt eat towards the end.if anyone has any advice please post.I know the min req for these guys are 75 and currently running a 40 I know I'm pushing it but he's small and I really like this fish
 
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so now you have not one but two fish that need a tank twice the size of yours. your tank is too small for both the foxface and the coral beauty. your foxface has nowhere to go to get away from the aggression which will likely continue.

not to bash but you need to slow down and research your purchases before you buy. liveaquaria.com is a good place to start. they will give you the requirements and likely temperaments of any fish you are considering.
 
I hawr this all the time on this site" i would give ( put name of to large fish here) back but i really like him" if you care for the fish give it back to the petstore; what you have right now is not an aquarium but a prison where your two biggest fish are consustently lovked in the same room. Right now your foxface will surely die unless you give it back, the coral beauty will not allow the foxface to live on his terratory.
 
No hard feelings.eventually I will be upgrading tanks to a bigger one .I just figured
Since he was small he would be fine.the coral beuty actually liked him it's the blennie that is giving him crap.thanks for the advice though some off learn the hard way.
 
jmareef1022 said:
No hard feelings.eventually I will be upgrading tanks to a bigger one .I just figured
Since he was small he would be fine.the coral beuty actually liked him it's the blennie that is giving him crap.thanks for the advice though some off learn the hard way.
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Just out of curiosity, what percentage of the "planned" upgrades do you think actually happen? The blenny is unhappy because you put a fish in your tank that will steal all of his food. The best way to help your fish is to take him back or his fate will mirror that of your rabbitfish which needs a tank 4 times larger than you have. Also, just as an FYI, fish do not like other fish. That is a facebook emotion not an aquarium emotion.
 
jmareef1022 said:
No problem I guess I'll take him out.just don't know what the fish suite will say
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Well, if the fish company were acting in your best interests, rather than theirs, they would not have sold him to you. They know, or should know, that this fish is not appropriate for a small tank especially if it contains another algae grazer (or two). By the way, if a foxface gets hungry, it will eat your zoanthids or other corals containing zooxanthellae.
 
jmareef1022 said:
No hard feelings.eventually I will be upgrading tanks to a bigger one .I just figured
Since he was small he would be fine.the coral beuty actually liked him it's the blennie that is giving him crap.thanks for the advice though some off learn the hard way.
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Yeah, I will say from my experience the foxfaces grow pretty quickly. I had f foxface lo that I got as a small juvi and he grew to about 6 inches in about a year and was stressed and stressing everyone else in my 75g. Was not fun to catch him either so even though liveaquaria says 75g minimum I personally wouldn't get one in anything smaller than a 120g. I loved that fish but I would need a bigger tank before I ever got another.

jmareef1022 said:
I guess I should of posted before I got him.
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We all learn and sometimes its the hard way unfortunately in this hobby. Finding a LFS that will actually give good advice and not just try and sell you anything and everything is hard to do to be honest.
 
J2T said:
We all learn and sometimes its the hard way unfortunately in this hobby. Finding a LFS that will actually give good advice and not just try and sell you anything and everything is hard to do to be honest.
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I totally agree. Not so easy to do, necessarily, but clearly the one the OP went to was giving bad advice, at least relative to fish. But one does not start out knowing this kind of stuff, it is only through screwing up that we learn some of the more important lessons.
 
Still bummed out that my lfs said it would be fine. I totally understand were everyone is coming from that he needs a bigger tank,j2t your right I guess I'm learning the hard way.just wanted more fish in the tank but now I know that I have hit the limit to keep my ecosystem happy.glad to see people from fl. Here I'm a resident aswell
 
jmareef1022 said:
Still bummed out that my lfs said it would be fine. I totally understand were everyone is coming from that he needs a bigger tank,j2t your right I guess I'm learning the hard way.just wanted more fish in the tank but now I know that I have hit the limit to keep my ecosystem happy.glad to see people from fl. Here I'm a resident aswell
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To be honest, if it was me I would take the coral beauty and the foxface out (maybe even the damsel too, evil things lol) and maybe go with some smaller fish. There are a lot of options for a 40. Even in my 75g my coral beauty can be a bit of a pain and if I had to do it over again I probably wouldn't get one again.

There are plenty of gobies to choose from (goby/pistol shrimp pair is a favorite of mine), different cardinal fish, firefish or even a possum wrasse. Just some ideas.
 
Foxface's are notorious for being extremely rapid growers. If that fish survives the conditions mentioned, he's going to outgrow your 40 gallon *fast*. The reason your blenny is harassing him is because they both compete for the same food source, and because the tank is simply too small for all of these fish. I would take the foxface back sooner rather than later, before things get uglier. One more thing I must mention, foxfaces provide a fairly heavy bioload, so you're probably going to be pushing the limits of your filtration if you haven't already. Good luck :fish1:
 
Seems like I'm gonna have to break the tank down to get all these fish out.tried to get damsel in the past and he's just to fast, definitely gonna try soon to get them out.then I'll be able to start over with a new selection off fish....thanks again everyone for the advice..that possum wrasse looks amazing...I had a yellow Gobi in the past but my damsel took him out..they are little evil things...the personalities these fish have are amazing...I just wanna tell everyone how much I enjoy this hobby just looking forward in succeeding
 
jmareef, big props to you for following the advice in here. In the long run you and your fish will be happier for it ;)
 
J2T said:
jmareef, big props to you for following the advice in here. In the long run you and your fish will be happier for it ;)
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And I second those kudos as well as to J2T for being supportive. It is not easy to back track on a course.

:thumbsup:
 
This is the reason I joined the community to do it right with all the experts advice.been doing it for a few years and don't plan on stopping.I know most of the basics but got so much to learn
 
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