skittish flagtail

[shern]

Greetings all, recently i bought myself a nice flagtail prochilodus for my 250g but i’ve noticed some extremely jumpy behavior. he usually darts away the second we come close to him and has been hitting his head sometimes on the glass if we’re just walking by his tank. it’s not often but i am still worried. he’s eating fine and when the lights are dimmer he seems to be fine with humans coming and looking at him. should i be worried and will this get better? he’s been in the tank for 2-3 months now and is still jumpy.

 

[Dee eng]

Hi…That is kinda of strange considering it has been in the tank for 2-3 months. Is it housed with any other fishes and how big is the flagtail?

 

[Ansorgii]

There can be a few reasons for that, like trauma from previous tankmates, to much light, a setting where people are a massive shock, ...

With what kind of fish has be been housed with before you ?

What is his tank like ? (Lighting, cover, sandcolour...)

How often do things move infront of the tank ?

What are his current tankmates ?

Is there anything broken in the tank ? (Electric devices)

 

[duanes]

This species is a shoaler in nature, moving in massive migrating groups, but.....unless there are at least half dozen to spread aggression, in a tank with only 2 or 3 they will constantly pick on each other. As a single individual its quite normal to be them to be skittish,.
Are there other shoaling species in the tank?

 

[shern]

There can be a few reasons for that, like trauma from previous tankmates, to much light, a setting where people are a massive shock, ...

With what kind of fish has be been housed with before you ?

What is his tank like ? (Lighting, cover, sandcolour...)

How often do things move infront of the tank ?

What are his current tankmates ?

Is there anything broken in the tank ? (Electric devices)

currently he’s housed with two other tiger morays, both of which rarely interact with him and are significantly smaller. the flagtail is around 6-8 inches right now. his current string in my tank has a normal sand substrate with many hiding spaces that he will run to when he spots us. he’s in a relatively high traffic area though which could be a problem. nothing broken aswell as the 250g is properly maintained. he was housed with many other flagtails in the fish store we bought him from. his lighting system mimics day light cycle with gradual increases and decreases over the span of 8 hours.

 

[shern]

This species is a shoaler in nature, moving in massive migrating groups, but.....unless there are at least half dozen to spread aggression, in a tank with only 2 or 3 they will constantly pick on each other. As a single individual its quite normal to be them to be skittish,.
Are there other shoaling species in the tank?

hes only housed with 2 eels but the skittish behavior feels too much, he’s banging into walls pretty hard sometimes on a scare and i’m worried for his health

 

[shern]

View attachment IMG_0733.jpeg

 

[shern]

here’s a couple pictures of him full bodied and the eels

 

[duanes]

Eels are not going to help, to make it feel comfortable, if you cannot get a half dozen more of its own kind, then another group of similar sized, geographically correct tetras might help.
Shoaling species hardly ever calm down, without other shoaling/schooling species in the tank.

 

[Ansorgii]

I would not recommend adding more flagtails. I once kept 8 and they kept bullying the weakest link to death (I removed them when possible) until I was left with 2 that went for each other.

And all their fighting really stired up the tank. Not fun.

Silver dollars are usually a good choice, tho I would recommend Metynnis over Myleus species as the latter tend to infight if they see themselves as the big fish in the tank. Both are really unfussy and hardy.

Another option would be to give the Flagtail away and ad sth. from the morays natural range. They do like rather hard water if I remember correctly. Brackish Tanks can be awesome aswell.