Fire Fish Question

Hello all, on friday I purchased two fire fish to round out my 30 gallon reef tank (or soon to be). The fish were in two seperate tanks and looked healthy at purchase and through two days of quarantine. I went to feed this morning and noticed one had chewed up fins and was missing his dorsal fin (not completely but close).

My question is, do these guys fight with each other. All seems fine now but I wonder if because they were in two seperate tanks at the LFS and I put them together in quarantine if one was establishing dominance over the other.

 

one per tank unless its a mated pair. otherwise, they'll kill eachother

 

OPPPS, so much for the LHS looking out for me. Because all looks good now and they are cuddled up with each other have they become a pair?

 

hard to say, if they arnt activly trying to kill eachother non-stop then they might be headed in that direction. best of luck but dont be too upset when it doesnt work out.

my buddy learned this the hard way, he got two of the helfirchi firefish, for $115 each, same story, they were both in differnt tanks at the store, and they didnt tell him otherwise, and one was dead in teh morning, and the other died a day later due to injuries from the fighting.

 

I blame myself. I always carry my phone into a store so that I can pull up live aquaria to reference a fish. I did it this time but did not see the part about mated pair. I blame the wife. She was ohhh and ahhh'ing over other fish and distracted me.

I feel bad because I try really hard to looking to things before I buy, and I just didn't notice the info.

 

I think we've all learned a valuable lesson here.

When it doubt, always blame the wife.

 

100% her fault 100% of the time

 

I just read up on them to see if it was true that they shouldnt be kept together. I have 5 in my tank and have had them for about a year and a half. There are two that stay together all the time but I havent seen any issues between any of them.

 

I like taking her to look and to get her futher into the hobby but hate taking her when I actually want to buy because she distracts me. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

 

I have kept ire fish together without issue, in trios. The trick is to get them young and introduce all at the same time.

I suspect your fishes injuries are from fighting between to mature males or injuries received from the fishes bolt hole.

Great fish that can live together if you plan ahead of time.