Shy/Jumpy Senegal?

[Zinq]

Hey,

I bought 2 senegals about 3 weeks ago, they have huge appetites and seem to be enjoying themselves. They are about 4 - 4.5 inches in length. They really are fun fish to watch.

But over the past couple of days, one of them has been acting kind of jumpy and shy whenever I enter the room. It used to swim up to the window and have stareing contests with me and swim back and forth. Whenever I enter now, she (at least I think it's a she) swims as fast as possible to a specific corner of the aquarium and goes out of my view. She will sometimes approaches me really slowly but hides really quickly afterwards. Physically she looks fine with no physical defects or anything of the sort, in fact, she looks alot better then my other sen.

They are currently living in a 55 Gal, heavily planted with 2 pieces of store bought wood, sand substrate and I feed them frozen silversides, and shrimp. I also bought these floating pellet thingys (some chinese brand, designed for arowana) that my LFS recommended but they really dislike it so I stopped feeding them that. I feed them once or twice a day just enough so that they're full, which I assume is when they have little bumps in their stomach. For filtration I have a Eheim 2026.

Her stomach also seems kinda plump but I think it's cuz she at alot yesterday. Oddly enough the other senegal seems perfectly content swimming around and isn't bothered at all by my presence.

Also, they are the only residents in that aquarium. Nothing else at the moment.

Any explanations as to why she's acting so strangely? Recommendations too?

I'll try to post some pics of them and my setup when I get the chance.

Thanks for your help,

Zinq

 

[OSH]

My senegals seem to go through stages. One day they'll both greet me at the tank, ready to play a game of "follow the finger" the next, they run and hide. I still have'nt figured out why some days they are friendly as little cannibal puppies, and the next shy as bigfoot.

I'm working at figuring it out. So far, I've eliminated barometric pressure, time of day/night, amount of food/most recent feeding, and ambient noise level. Next up, shirt color, then frequency of visits to the tank to look at them.

If you figure something out, do post!

 

[Zinq]

Thanks for the reply OSH,

Yah so far I've experimented with feedings and it seems they are a bit more responsive when hungry. I guess when they're too full, they become too lazy and don't feel like swimming.

I sometimes turn on the radio too and they seem a bit more responsive but that could be purely coicidental, so I gotta test that out a bit more.

I hadn't even thought of shirt colour but I'll try that too.


The thing is I still can't figure out why one of them is super shy whereas the other one is so lazy he won't bother moving much, aside for food. Maybe it's their personalities.

 

[is300zx]

Yup it could be just that they have different personalities. And you're right they are more active when they are hungry. This is why holding feedings once in a while can be good for them.

 

[ghost]

Patience is the key .. give your bichir time to adjust in the new environment .