Firefish behavior/pairing/aggression

[DaJMasta]

I've had two firefish in my tank for just under two months and they have gotten along great, until three days ago.  They always stuck together, slept in the same hole, etc. and I had assumed they had paired up.  In the last couple days they've stayed further apart, and yesterday one was hiding close to a powerhead with both fish missing chunks of fins.  I caught one and isolated one, and they seem to both be okay, but I'm wondering if there's still a chance they could get along if reintroduced.  Basically, my question is whether anyone has seen this sort of behavior as part of pairing up, or if they were just tolerating each other until now and now are squabbling for dominance (and therefore probably aren't male and female)?

 

My assumption for now is that they were tolerating each other because another fish was keeping them a little on edge, and since it's been a couple of weeks since that fish died, maybe the external pressure was the thing keeping them together, but if there was a chance they could be reintroduced and get along, that would of course be preferable.

 

[cpeguero]

Are these regular, purple, or helfrichi? There was an article in Coral magazine a year or two ago discussing the various species and their tolerance of others of the same species. I do t recall all the details, but I do remember that helfrichi firefish are the best suited for multiples of the same species in a single tank.

I have 3x helfrichi firefish in a 260 gallon (for 4 months so far). They get along well, mostly. Two appear to have paired up. The third keeps to his:her end of the tank. Usually by the end of the day, one of the others darts at him a few times, but, other than that, they get along fine. They were the first fish into the tank. Since then have added yellow coris wrasse, melanurus wrasse, tail spot blenny, carpenter’s flasher wrasse, and a rainford’s goby.

I tried to have two purple firefish in a 72 gallon many years ago. Eventually there was only one. I know they often are seen in dealer tanks in groups, but I don’t recall hearing of much success in hobbyist tanks.


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[DaJMasta]

Regular firefish, and the picture was representative of their behavior for the majority of the time.  Both appear to be fully grown, or at least around it, and they haven't gotten much bigger since I got them.  The two were originally seen as a group of three where one was clearly shunned and these two hung out together, but perhaps that was less indicative of their long term tolerance of each other than I thought.


Here's an oddity of firefish behavior observed last night, thanks to the third decent sized power outage I've had in the last four months

When the lights suddenly went off, the one left in the display really started freaking out.  Within a few minutes I found it stuck along the overflow (the pump was on a UPS), and when I went to get it off, it just swam off.  The room was fairly dark and I was using a flashlight to look around, and the firefish followed the light, almost like a larva would, whereas other fish either avoided the light/were freaked out by it.  This was to the point that shining it in from the top meant this firefish would actually get its nose 3/4" out of the water to try and get towards the flashlight, but when I pulled the light back and aimed at the side, it noticeably calmed down, swam more in the middle of the water column, but still seemed to follow the light somewhat.

I think the sudden darkness meant that it could no longer spot the hole it usually hides in, so it was freaking out about being exposed and in an unfamiliar setting.  Probably good to avoid sudden, unpredictable blackouts when possible.  They both seemed to go to sleep back in their hole around the same time every night, so they can probably manage in a sudden lights out environment if it's on a timer, but the fade out is probably preferred.

[phlynamjax]

I tried to pair up helfrichi firefish on 5 different times. It never worked for me. The best I got was they were together for 1.5 years, then total war afterward until one died.

[DaJMasta]

I wonder if they pair up but don't mate for life, I can't say I've seen a lot of information around, but I figure they are common enough fish that people have tried and noticed things.

[treesprite]

You need a big enough tank for a school, get them very young, arrange liverock to prevent lines of sight. Keep a cover over the tank and screen on the overflow. They won't fight. They will spend most of their juvenile time together, then as they mature will form their own bonded pairs without ever feeling threatened enough to get aggressive.  

 

One time I had a school of orange FF in a 75 and they were fine. Eventually a couple were lost to carpet surfing, and some others had ended up in the sump too long to put back in the DT (they would have been seen as foreign to the remaining group members, which would have resulted in aggression). The last 4 divided into pairs and each pair had its own hideout, but the 4 would still sometimes hang out as a group. 

 

Another time, several years before having the school,  I had a pair of purple and a pair of orange at the same time - no aggression at all. Same sad story of loss to carpet surfing, and when there was only one of each pair, the remaining purple and remaining orange shacked up together. 

 

Firefish are really wonderful fish, great for a limited species tank, relaxing to watch while sitting in a glider chair with a hot beverage.