My Foxface Arghhh!

PRC

PRC

Stop Quoting Me!
Damn, I knew I shouldn't have posted that last Foxface thread. I'm starting to think there is something wrong with my little buddy. This morning when I turned on the Halides he didn't come out of the rock. So I waited and waited. Nothing.

Went to work, came home, still not foxface. so I checked him, he's in the back of the tank and he's got half of his cammo on. Checked the water, everything is perfect. I know he's stressed out, but I don't know why. I threw in an algae sheet, he went to it and nibbled but not like normal, and when my raving loon of a clown sees him, she goes swimming over to him (not threatening) and he disappears behind the rock again. So I threw in a small amount of mysis, nothing doing.

Something must have happened last night after lights off that caused him stress and he hasn't quite gotten over it. He's swimming, but not like he was. He doesn't have any marks, bumps, anything on him. He's not gasping for air, not swimming oddly. But he's not coming to the front of the tank. He'll go in one of the caves and just hang out but that's it.

My wife asked me if I wanted her to fill up the air mattress so I could stay down here with the fish. I actually considered it. I can't believe how attached you get to a fish.

I called the LFS, they said foxface will sometimes act weird for a day or two and then be fine...That seems like the running theme when they know a fish is on his way to the coral reef in the sky.

I could put him in the hospital tank, but I'm worried about stressing him out even more. So I'm just watching. Gonna be a long night.
 
Awww.....keep us posted....hopefully he's just being bullied by the clown, and once the clown sees he's being submissive, she'll let him go. Keep doing the garlic on the sheets just to be sure he eats well. Nothing like a fat healthy fish to help battle whatever demons they're fighting!
 
Wonton,

Do you think I should move him to the hospital tank? Or do you think this will cause even more un-needed stress. I'm gonna be up all night with this fish.
 
I hope I'm over-reacting. I've got the lights down to the blues right now, (He doesn't normally come out unless the Halides are on) so he'll be behind the rock for the rest of the night. I just peeked at him very quickly. fins are moving normally, cammo is off, he's moving from place to place at the back of the tank. )I don't see him swimming, but when I check on him periodically he's in different places. Maybe he's just sick of the female clown. We'll see what morning brings.
 
unneeded stress. I would reserve the QT tank for obviously ill fish, like ich, or maybe to put a naughty fish in time out.

If he's eating, there's not much else you can do. Maybe keep the lights dim tomorrow? If you have corals, they should be fine for a day.
 
I'll just wait it out.. My biggest concern is when I put in the mysis he didn't come out of the rock. He came out for the algae but only took a couple of nibbles...He's not grazing like he normally does.
 
yea, i know what your talking about, the foxface i have is really a scardy-cat too... but i attribute that to not being used to humans, after all he did come out of a tank that you couldnt see into, even with the lights on... it was sooooo covered with algae, and for so long, that he has probably forgotten that the big dry animals are the ones that bring him food...
 
I've been checking in on him periodically for the last 4 hrs. He doesn't have his cammo on anymore, but he's still hanging around in the back of the tank. Not breathign heavy or anything, just hanging around. I'm going to try and feed a little bit shortly, see if that will kickstart something in his head. Like Wonton said, I think my female clown may have just got after him the night before last and he's trying to give her space. But for the previous few days before that they were swimming around together. I did notice her starting to invade his space when he was trying to eat algae. I think he may just be trying to stay away from her for awhile. I haven't seen her act aggressively toward him, but who knows. The foxface is at least twice the clowns size.

Still watching.
 
Last edited:
I've seen foxfaces do that several time.Mine used to take spells where he'd act that way.
Never did figure out why.:dunno:
 
They can definitely be scaredy cats. Mine was acting very shy for about 3 weeks after the tank move, now he's back to the way he was. I think he's just being shy right now.
 
just an idea-- if the clown continues pestering your foxface at the algae feeding station, why not split the sheet in half and get a 2nd algae clip? Put it on the opposite side of the tank and maybe the foxface can get some peace.
 
tankedchemist said:
just an idea-- if the clown continues pestering your foxface at the algae feeding station, why not split the sheet in half and get a 2nd algae clip? Put it on the opposite side of the tank and maybe the foxface can get some peace.
Click to expand...

Thanks tanked..The clown doesn't eat the algae sheet. She only goes by the algae sheet because the foxface would be there. At first, I thought she might be trying to get flying scraps, but that's not the case.

Here's my update today. I woke up came down to the tank and found the foxface and the clowns all sitting "at the front door" of the clowns cave. Again, they were all just hanging out.

When I turned on the lights, he disappeared back into the rock.. I don't think there's anything wrong with him, like others posted, I think he's just an oddball.

As I was typing this, he came out and was swimming around the front of the tank for a few minutes. (first time in 2 days)

I'm done worrying about him....I think if there was something wrong with him, he would already be dead, we're going on the 3rd day of this weirdness. I think I just got the Henry David Thoreau of foxface's.
 
I just fed a little mysis and emeral entree (thanks to Biff for turnign me on to this). The Foxface came flying out from behind the rocks to eat. I'm just typing this out for documentation sake. So 2.5 days of strange behavior, on the 3rd day he seems ok, still a little shy but he's out in front and is eating.
 

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