Shy Fish

[fixedpoint]

I have a chromis in QT that continues to be very shy even after two weeks. He spends his day hiding behind the heater or the filter. The tank itself is 10g with a large piece of PVC pipe and a background on three sides.

He appears to be healthy and feeds but not very enthusiastically. Compared to another chromis that I briefly had (and unfortunately died in QT due to illness), this one is much more reclusive and less energetic. I thought for sure that he would settle in after a week or so, but he still seems uneasy.

The only two differences are that the other chromis had another fish (a firefish) in the tank whereas this one is alone and the other QT tank had a second PVC pipe.

I am kind of disappointed with my shy fish. Will he improve with more aquatic company? Is there something that I can do to help? Or did I get a dud?

 

[usingthejohn]

Kind of hard to say. If it's eating well it may just be the personality of that particular fish.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Are you seeing any red spots/patches on the fish?

 

[fixedpoint]

Not yet and it has had two weeks in QT so far.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Have you treated with Prazi? Quite often a fish that hides has flukes even though you may not see other signs. I had a flame angel in a QT for 2 weeks and it would hide whenever I walked into the room. He ate good, never flashed or shook his head. I did a FW dip and he was covered in flukes. It's east enough to dose Prazi in a QT and is very well tolerated. Do you know if the LFS you got him from uses a low rise of copper in their tanks? That has been known to mask the symptoms of velvet, another disease in which a symptom is hiding.

 

[fixedpoint]

I'm planning to start treating him with PraziPro this Tuesday (two treatments). I don't know if the LFS that I purchased him from uses low rise copper.

It sounds like with a persistently shy fish that I should be checking for illness.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Autocorrect Meant to say low dose. I would be prepared in the event that symptoms present. Chromis have been showing up with uronema quite often lately.

 

[fixedpoint]

Sadly, the Chromis died in QT today. This is my second chromis that has died in QT this month Towards the end, he became more and more reclusive - not a good sign. I'm not doing so well with Chromis.

Fortunately, in my other QT tank, my helfrichi firefish finished QT today and entered the DT. Yeah!