why are my fish afraid of me

[Anthony.Luciano710]

i dont understand why all my fish are afraid of me. i have a blue hippo tang, a yellow tang, a fire goby, and a blue damsel. if i go look at the tank or something they all go behind the rocks. the fire goby i cant even walk in the room without it hiding i don't know how its still living because i haven't seen it eat for 3 months it just hides behind the rock when i feed it. i see it swimming if im standing across the room but the minute i move it hides. why do they do this. i dont understand. the water parameters are great and i feed them every day mysis and flakes. they come out to eat but they grab the food and then hide really fast and if i have anyone come over to see the tank they see this big 6 foot thing and every time there like ok you have a nice big tank now wheres the fish.

 

[bigyankfan]

Sometimes the fish overcome their initial shyness and sometimes they don't. I've had my Hippo tang for a year and a half and it still ducks into the rocks whenever anyone walks by.

 

[richardhmc]

I think it depends on the fish... My mandarin is afraid of me meanwhile my clowns comes forth trying to drill their noses through the glass.

 

[fishman1069]

Yeah it definitely depends on the fish. Usually it takes a coup[le of days of any fish being in the tank to get use to you but some fish just never do. "The best thing you could do is slowly sneak up on your tank and dont move for a while. Do this several times a day for weeks on end and maybe you will see one or two of your fish." LOL j/k I had someone tell me this once and I laughed in his face!

 

[islesfan4lyf]

It's most likely bc you are ugly

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Do you put your hands in the tank quite a bit?

 

[straightjiggy10]

Like a giant man come peeping through your window, will you walk to the window or runaway, and every now and again he sticks his hand in and rearranges you furniture

 

[fishman1069]

Like a giant man come peeping through your window, will you walk to the window or runaway, and every now and again he sticks his hand in and rearranges you furniture

LOL Good analogy!

 

[basiab]

They generally pick up from one another. If you can get a fish that stays in the open it will eventually make the others be less afraid. Try a clown goby or a blenny. They are usually curious and stay in the open. I am surprised that the damsel would hide.

 

[jerl77]

stop scaring them :tongue1: give them time they will come around

 

[NYreefNoob]

have u looked in the mirror at yourself lately ? now u know why they are afraid

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

It's most likely bc you are ugly

LMAO I was going to say the same!

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

very rarely i hate sticking my arm in the water because its 66 degrees and yea thats another problem im dealing with. its in a house with now heat yet and a 500 watt heater on max and it doesn't go above 70 during the middle of the day. because its 38 degrees in the house.

Do you put your hands in the tank quite a bit?

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

do you think they can get traumatized because last month i spent a week every day trying to catch them all to put them in a hospital tank to get rid of ich and i would drain 100 gallons and try to catch them with a net and take out all the rocks and stuff but i had no luck so i just did hypo on the tank. its been like a month but i thought they would get over it already. do you think this could be the problem?

 

[NYreefNoob]

umm i would say ur lucky any are still alive with that temp, buy another 250 or 500w heater, what are you using to test the temp

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

im using the reefkeeper temp probe and i even used a regular water thermometer to test it. its like 66.7 exactly. i turned the heat on in the house a little to boost it up but i cant leave it on that long because then it wastes the gas bill and no ones even living there.

umm i would say ur lucky any are still alive with that temp, buy another 250 or 500w heater, what are you using to test the temp

 

[KathyC]

At 66 degrees it is only a matter of time before everything in the tank is dead.

Are the corals also in the same house that has a temp of 38 degrees?

I must assume nobody lives in this house, so yes the fish would be quite afraid when they suddenly see movement around them, why would you expect otherwise...

 

[NYreefNoob]

so you have a empty house with a fish tank ?

 

[tonep]

I think its because they heard about your strange "love" of fish

 

[Anthony.Luciano710]

the coral is in a 10 gallon tank that has a 200 watt heater and the temp is kept at around 75 because im doing hyposalinity on my main tank. i still have a couple of weeks with hypo but i have no hope for my coral. there was over $1000 worth and it just all died during the process of taking it out of the new tank because of stuff like this like the temp i had to use the heater from that tank because the fish tank went down really low so in just a few hours the coral tank went to 63 and i lost all my sps and a taodstool and a couple other things. then the salt level went really low in the coral tank because at the time i was using a hydrometer and it was like 5 points off so it was really low and i lost even more and with all the losses the phosphates went up so much that theres algae growing over every piece of coral and i just cant deal with that there nothing i can really do. i have an 11 oz bag of chemi pure elite and its not helping and i do 5 gallon water changes a week and sometimes twice a week so thats 50% and twice a week is 100%. i would buy another heater but im saving up for an mp40 so i can get sps in the main tank. but since i have all you people here on this thread what do you think i should get because i make $80 a weekend because im only 15 and go to school during the weekend and i have 2 people willing to sell me a tunze wavebox for 300 or i can get an mp40 for 395 but i heard the tunze just rocks the water and the mp40 pushes random flow. what would you suggest i start with for sps because i already have a koralia pushing 1600gph but its definitely now enough

At 66 degrees it is only a matter of time before everything in the tank is dead.

Are the corals also in the same house that has a temp of 38 degrees?

I must assume nobody lives in this house, so yes the fish would be quite afraid when they suddenly see movement around them, why would you expect otherwise...