New Additions - Lights off

FishyReef

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
I know you should typically leave lights off for 4 hours when you add new fish to the tank. I wasn't able to get acclimation containers for my new fairy wrasses so just added them with fingers crossed that they would sort out aggression issues without anyone killing someone else (long story short, I couldn't find anyone at petco to help me pull apart the acclimation containers that were stuck together and after half an hour of looking around for an employee left, planning to go back at lunch today - but the fish arrived early and looked very stressed during the drip acclimation, so I went ahead and just put them in the tank rather than leaving them in the bucket for another hour while I went to petco). Anyhow, my question is whether I should just keep the lights off for a whole day or so to try to reduce aggression and help them settle in, or whether the standard 4 hours is going to be just as good? I know have 3 species, with one male/female pair :)
 
Yeah, I think I will - the male red velvet found the female in the moonlight and instead of romance and flashing he took it upon himself to chase and nip at her. I'm worried he'll kill her before she has a chance to settle in and he can discover she is female instead of a threat.

EDIT: Should I just wait to try feeding everyone until tomorrow?
 
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I wouldn't try to feed new fish anyway, they are usually too skiddish to eat. I would just leave everything calm for a day and try to feed tomorrow.
 
So I thought I'd give you guys an update. I left the lights off from mid-day Friday to mid-day Sunday. I bought two critter cages from petco and drilled holes through the side of them, then attached one to the glass inside my tank with magnets. I turned the lights on yesterday and watched everyone while I was drilling the critter cages. Seemed like only the basslet was the aggressor, so I managed to catch him pretty easily with a net while feeding and put him in time out in the critter cage. Today everyone else is out and about and all three male wrasses are getting along just fine. I haven't seen the female today, which concerns me. She was in the tank yesterday and ate a little bit, but was incredibly shy and a target of aggression from the basslet. She kept paling when she'd get stressed and scared and really didn't swim around much. She became a little more active when I put the basslet in time out and I was hopeful she'd settle in. Fingers crossed she's just hiding in the rocks somewhere and will eventually acclimate to the tank. Now to figure out what to do with the basslet.... how many days can I leave him in time out before he starts to get super stressed? (I do have a piece of pvc in there for him to hide in).
 
Update 2: Cora, my sixline wrasse just chased the female (Ruby) out of hiding from one rock and back into hiding in another rock. Guess its time to catch Cora too - this is gonna be so much harder!
 
Best of luck catching that wrasse. I have caught one and the cursing involved would have filled a book. Just wondering are you taking him to the store or simply giving him a time out?
 
Kelz88 said:
Best of luck catching that wrasse. I have caught one and the cursing involved would have filled a book. Just wondering are you taking him to the store or simply giving him a time out?
Click to expand...

I haven't decided yet. If the female dies I might just let them all back into the tank. If she settles in then I'll have to decide what to do. As of now I'd love to find someone to house them temporarily until I can get a tank set up at home for them. I have an extra 45g hex tank (don't know if its water tight - the big *if* factor) - I'd love to put those two fish in it along with a lemonpeel angel and maroon pair. That has kind of been a back-up plan with these two fish all along since I initially added them only to deal with an isopod problem in my tank. I've always thought they would end up needing a new tank eventually.


Did my best to catch Cora with a soda bottle trap today - she wouldn't even go near the thing. I left it in the tank overnight. I don't expect it to be occupied in the morning, but am hoping she gets used to it enough to go in and out of it, then maybe I can grab it up when I see her in it. Fingers crossed!
 
Well, the six-line has completely avoided the trap. Living up to its reputation for being hard to catch for sure! No sign of the female red velvet today - once again I have no idea if she's still alive or not. Basslet is just chilling in his cage and doesn't seem particularly stressed. Not really sure what to do from here - advice?
 
I caught her!!!!!!!

Looked over at the tank and there she was in the bottle... quickly removed the bottle before she could escape and she's now in her own time out cage. Basslet's been hanging out more in the pvc pipe - should I be concerned that its been confined too long?
 
Keep your fingers crossed, I may have found someone to house them temporarily (like 6+ months) until I can set up a tank for them! I'm worried about the basslet, so the sooner I can get him out of his time out container the better!
 
Fishies go to their new frag tank foster home today (I'm sad to see them go, but trust the person who is going to take them to take good care of them, and I will be getting them back once I have a new home set up for them). The female red velvet is still alive - I managed to locate her back behind the rocks a little bit ago. Her coloring is better but she is still very much in hiding. I suspect it will take several days for her to venture out and feel safe, but at least I know she's hanging in :)
 
I'm glad you found someone you trust to house your babies temporarily. I would be very uneasy to have somebody watch mine lol. Is your female eating at all?
 
She ate when I fed the tank on Sunday, but didn't come out to eat yesterday. I've intentionally been feeding twice the normal amount I feed and squirting some inside the rocks. I'm hoping that enough got down to wherever she was hiding for her to grab a few bites. I'll feed again tomorrow and do the same thing if she doesn't come out on her own. My tank should also be mature enough at this point to have a good population of pods in the rocks, so I'm sure she will find organisms to eat in the rocks so that she doesn't starve in at least the immediate future. She came from Divers Den so should be a pretty healthy fish, which makes me at least a little more at ease given the situation. The fact that she ventured near a cave opening today (I could see her tail from the front of the tank and then located her with a mirror in back) gives me hope that in a few days she'll be out cruising around.

And it is very hard to let my other fishies go, but I really felt like I didn't have another good option. I don't think either fish will back down in terms of aggression towards the female, and at least I didn't have to sell them or give them back to an LFS. I feel more confident having them in a local reefers tank who will give me updates and has a healthy and stable system than I would have felt trading them in for credit and having them go who knows where. They will be the only fish in the frag tank, which is a 40g breeder and will have enough rocks for caves, etc. They will be fed daily with a rods type mixture. The person watching them also plans to put them into an observation tank prior to adding them to his system, and while I know these are very healthy fish who have never shown any signs of disease, his decision to quarantine them for observation tells me he is a conscientious fish keeper. I think they will be in good hands :)
 

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