Why are my clowns hiding in the back of the tank?

[melanotaenia]

I have two True Percs that have been in the tank for about a month now; at night they go and "sleep" behing the Koralia powerheads near the back top corners of the tank; when the lights came on, they would be out and about.

Over the last week or so they refuse to come out to the front of the tank; they are eating fine and appear to be normal, no disease spots or anything, but I cannot figure out why they will not come to the front of the tank; I have a Biocube with SPS corals and they are the only fish in the tank. I have rearranged the rockwork recently, but other than that, there has been no changes to the aquarium.

Any ideas as to why they are hanging out in the back? Could there be too much flow for the little guys, and that is why they are hanging out behind the powerheads?

Thanks for the help.

Oh, and the water parameters are all in check, and the SPS corals are looking better than ever, so I know it is not a water quality issue.

 

[dalilgriffith]

I have two pairs of percs and they do this. I don't really know why but I would imagine it has to do with their natural sleeping patterns in the wild. In the wild, they sleep in their host anemone and lay against it. They must feel some comfort from the side of the tank.

 

[vwwanksta69]

mine do the same thing in my biocube, they love that back wall...they do come out tho every once and awhile to swim around...

 

[fishkid6692]

my snowflakes hang out behind my powerhead to. i wish they would stay in the front of the tank but whatever makes them happy.

 

[melanotaenia]

it is really annoying; when I first had them they were out and about, now they are very reclusive, hanging out in the back, they come to the front when mysis is in their field of vision,then they go right back to the back of the tank.

When the powerheads are off (such as when doing a water change) they come to the front and hang out near the bottom corners, but as soon as the powerheads come back on they go right to the back of the tank.

However, I cannot sacrifice the powerheads being in the tank because the SPS need them to survive.

I am, however, picking up a Mystery Wrasse on Friday, I am hoping that the new addition swimming around in the front of the tank will get them moving around more in the field of vision. It just sucks to look at the tank and see it basically "empty" unless you look for the percs in the back

 

[fishkid6692]

mine went almost straight to the back once i put them in my tank and haven't left. they don't even come out to eat. they wait for the current to take the food to them. even with my powerhead off they don't come out.

 

[melanotaenia]

well I guess having them in the back under the powerhead is better than having them dive bomb into the rear chambers or going carpet diving.

 

[kurt72]

they are in the back of the tank because they don't like you. April Fools.

haha. i had two false percs that would stay in the back and host the heater. i moved the heater, they stayed. they wouldn't host the BTA i put in the tank. but that didn't come as a shock.

saw some paired up yellow striped maroons at the LFS. traded in the false percs, maroons killed the first BTA. but the second one is doing fine.

clowns do what they wanna do.

 

[melanotaenia]

so the general consensus here is that the high flow in the tank provided by the return and the two Koralia 1 powerheads is not influencing the clowns to stay in the back of the tank?

 

[I'mRisenAquaRat]

What other fish do you have in the tank?