Silly Hawkfish

First I was alarmed and rushed to come to his aid thinking he got sucked into the powerhead...




Then as I came close he popped out and swam down to the bottom apparently fine. I sat and watched him for a while and he swam all the way up into the intake to the point his whole body disappeared then his head poked back out. Guess it's his new favorite spot. Thought I'd share his silly antics.

 

Haha silly fish!

 

Crazy fish

 

Since they have no swim bladder they will often perch where a current takes them. It takes them more energy to swim than a normal fish since they're negatively buoyant.

but they're not stupid... they won't lodge themselves into a dangerous position just because they seem "lazy" sometimes.

It also could have been seeking shelter. Do you have plenty of open rockwork with deep caves and bolt holes for them to get into? Just as we can see them they can see us, and an active room will often cause fish to seek shelter. If you don't have enough hiding places and other caves/holes are already "owned" by other fish it's not uncommon to see them take cover behind powerheads, over flow boxes, and othe in-tank equipment.

 

He has a normal little cave he goes into when he goes to sleep at night and some others he goes into. I see him ducking into the powerhead when the angel swims close when he's on that side of the tank. If the angel isn't around and he sees me he comes out and swims up to the glass cause he's a little fatty and loves to eat. He eats more food than any other fish in there and I think he'll be bigger than the angel soon, much to the detriment of my hermit population I'm sure.

I love him but I'll have to see how he interacts with the others as he gets larger cause I can see him start to pick on the smaller fish as he's gotten larger. I may have to find him a new home or just get a bigger tank and make it a home for fish larger than he is so he's at the bottom of the chain if he keeps going like this. Also I find myself wanting a cleaner shrimp and an emerald crap or something similar and I know he'll dominate those when he's full size. Who knows

I need to get a larger tank anyway cause I find myself wanting fish that would quickly outgrow this tank. I will have to catch my wife after she has just had her b-day or something so she'll give the okay