What is the best time to add a new fish to the tank?

"RubenD" wrote in message
om...
Everytime I add a new fish to my tank, the other tenants surround it and
show some territorial behavior, especially my dear damsells. This cause
stress to the new fish. My questions is, if you add the fish with the
lights out, would it make a difference in the morning?

Less traumatic perhaps?

I ask because I added a lawnmower blenny and he got chase even from the
yellow tang, and still being bother by the blue tang and of course my
damsell. By the way, the damsell have a particular behavior when
bullying,
he shake his tail on the face of the other fish, why is that?

At the same time I put a tunnel digger goby, 2 days later he was dead
with
blood stains on one side (inside), which suggested me he might have eaten
a
crab and got cut inside.

I'm planning to add either a tiny yellow goby (I'm still considering due
to
the damsell) or a coral beauty which seems more safe to the coral than the
butterflies.

Daytime or Nightime, that is the question?

TIA

Ruben


Adding new fish to any tank is always stressful to both the resident and the
newcomer.
I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where are you
going to hide? can't see!
There will always be fights even in compatible fish.

1. Keeping the livestock to an inch of fish per gallon is my rule of thumb.
2. Plenty of hiding places is a must
3. Fish must be compatible and species grouped by size. If you have big
damsels, don't add peaceful species that are smaller or that may compete for
food with them.
http://www.timstropicals.com/sal****...litySearch.asp
4. When? I prefer to add the fish half an hour to an hour before lights
out. At least they get the chance to find a hiding spot before lights-out.
In the dark, residents can travel around the tank easily. Again, there will
always be competition.

For example, I have a Yellow Tang 5 inches long that is the strongest one in
my tank. I added a juvenile Koran Angelfish and for two days the Tang just
beat the heck out of him (no serious damage thou). When I was about to pull
him out, they became the best of friends even sharing the same hiding
places.

I never like to compare fish to humans but as an analogy, this happens
everytime a kid moves into a new school: it takes time to establish
presence. Remember, 99% of these animals is the first time they see another
fish in his feeding ground, at least of the new species.

Another example; my Regal Demoiselle when I introduced a Clarkii Clownfish
she went nuts. The Clown was twice her size but she kept going at it and
following him around the tank. Once the Clown established presence and
fought back, the Regal just stopped. They became good friends. The Clown
died of age and I was looking for another to replace him. Well, I was
buying food for my dog in Petco out of all places I saw a stock of many
juvenile Clarkii. I couldn't believe it and bought 4; there were like 20 of
them. The Tang attacked them for 2 days, the Koran did as the Tang but not
as aggressive. It was amazing that the Regal only kept them away from his
den, she knew them already.

Now I have 6 different species co-existing in a 100 gallons system. I used
the site above to find compatible fish.

Guayni; SAHS wrote:

I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where are you
going to hide? can't see!

I once had a powder blue that was very territorial. I added a fish once with the
lights out, but you could see the tang chasing it all over the place. I think
they may be able to see a good deal better in limited light than we can. For
that matter, the chasee seemed to be able to see pretty well too!

Of course, that tang would chase a new addition with the lights on, so I think
it doesn't make any real difference.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Yea it's not a sure thing, but what turning the lights off
does, is it sends a signal to the other fish that it's
time to sleep.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 1/1/2007 10:22 PM:
Guayni; SAHS wrote:

I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where
are you going to hide? can't see!

I once had a powder blue that was very territorial. I added a fish once
with the lights out, but you could see the tang chasing it all over the
place. I think they may be able to see a good deal better in limited
light than we can. For that matter, the chasee seemed to be able to see
pretty well too!

Of course, that tang would chase a new addition with the lights on, so I
think it doesn't make any real difference.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

George Patterson wrote:
Guayni; SAHS wrote:

I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where
are you going to hide? can't see!


I once had a powder blue that was very territorial. I added a fish once
with the lights out, but you could see the tang chasing it all over the
place. I think they may be able to see a good deal better in limited
light than we can. For that matter, the chasee seemed to be able to see
pretty well too!

Of course, that tang would chase a new addition with the lights on, so I
think it doesn't make any real difference.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Having the lights off for a couple hours will lower the fishes
metabolsim a bit. That might make them less aggessive, or might not.

Add Homonym wrote:

Having the lights off for a couple hours will lower the fishes
metabolsim a bit. That might make them less aggessive, or might not.

I've had two fish that tended to get more aggressive when the lights went out.
One was *very* bad. That was an Imperator Angel. He would wait until other fish
went to sleep and then attack them. He killed hundreds of dollars worth of fish
in my tank. I finally traded him in for store credit.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Guayni; SAHS wrote on 1/1/2007 9:42 PM:
I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where are you
going to hide? can't see!
There will always be fights even in compatible fish.
snip ,,,

4. When? I prefer to add the fish half an hour to an hour before lights
out. At least they get the chance to find a hiding spot before lights-out.
In the dark, residents can travel around the tank easily. Again, there will
always be competition.

Yea I often do it that way, put the fish in, watch it long
enough to make sure it has time to get some familiarity
with it's environment (around 10 minutes), and then turn
off the light.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets

Guayni; SAHS wrote:


Adding new fish to any tank is always stressful to both the resident and the
newcomer.
I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where are you
going to hide? can't see!
There will always be fights even in compatible fish.

1. Keeping the livestock to an inch of fish per gallon is my rule of thumb.

?!?!?! INCH PER GALLON? I have always heard more like an inch per 3-4
gallons. 55 inches of fish total in a 55 gal tank?!?!

"Add Homonym" wrote in message
...
Guayni; SAHS wrote:


Adding new fish to any tank is always stressful to both the resident and
the newcomer.
I disagree with those expressing preference to do it with the lights out.
Just imagine yourself thrown in a dark room full of enemies. Where are
you going to hide? can't see!
There will always be fights even in compatible fish.

1. Keeping the livestock to an inch of fish per gallon is my rule of
thumb.

?!?!?! INCH PER GALLON? I have always heard more like an inch per 3-4
gallons. 55 inches of fish total in a 55 gal tank?!?!
Is not that much...
To put 55 inches of fish in a 55gal tank is not correct.
You have to subtract from that volume all the water displaced by liverock
and other things that occupy space.
Once you have all that subtracted you'll end up with less than 50% of your
55 gallons.
25 inches of fish will include your inverts!
In a 55gal you will only be able to keep like 15 inches of benthonic and
nektonic fish. It will all go down to 4 or 5 fish averaging 3 inches.
Is that a lot?