First of all thanks to mikez for identifying the fish my wife caught for our new aquarium.

Here's the problem: I have two filters. One was running and everything was fine. The little chub, which I now know is a fallfish, and the pumpkinseed were doing great. Well, no problems except for the sun fish getting very little food because the little piggy (the chub) was eating all the food!

Anyway, two days ago I got the second filter ready to go. Put in all the media, hooked it up, OK we're ready. The trouble came when I opened the valves on the new filter. I had poured 2 gallons of water into the new filter like Fluval told me to, but the filter was still not full. When the water went in the air had to come out of course. When the bubbles came forcibly out there really was a lot of noise from the sizable bubbles coming out.

Both fish FREAKED!!! I think they even hit their noses on the glass canopy. The good news is that the sun fish got over it within a few minutes.

The fallfish, however, is still not the same. He hides in the log all day (and all night as far as I can tell). When he realizes the other one is eating he will come out and grab something, but then it's right back into hiding again.

I've been keeping one of the lights off in hopes that this will be somewhat more soothing for him. I can't image what else I could possibly do, but just in case there might be someone with any kind of advice at all....

What can I do to get this fish back to his normal (extremely aggresive eater) self again? No doubt time will heal this, but if I can help the process along I will.

I already told my wife to go out and find me another chub to keep him comany assuming that would help him out a lot. (She doesn't work, so she's got time.) Does that seem to make sense to folks here? If so, or if not, any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Oh, BTW, that's him in the photo.

Here's a bigger version of the photo....

I'd guess that the fall fish eventually calms down. Or, you could put a few other fish in the tank whose normal behavior would make him feel calmer. That's more complicated, of course...

I'd guess that the fall fish eventually calms down. Or, you could put a few other fish in the tank whose normal behavior would make him feel calmer. That's more complicated, of course...

Yes, in fact your response reminded me of two tropicals I was trying to spawn a few years ago. They just wouldn't do it. I gave them their very own tank, places to hide, a nice flat rock, but still nothing. They had been given to me by a frirend who couldn't get them to NOT spawn.

I asked some folks and someone suggested throwing in some calm fish, I think I used guppies, and it worked. The theory that was presented to me was that if the fish don't see any other fish around, they think something is wrong such as a large preditor lurking in the area.

Not sure if that's why, but it worked. I put a few guppies in there and viola, hundreds of eggs on that flat rock.

So all this to say maybe I'll steal my wife's two goldfish from her 15-gallon tank for a while to help the fall fish "chill" a little.

Thanks for the reply!

I agree with Bruce. Smaller fallfish are usually seen in groups so he may feel a little timid without the rest of the school.
He may also have gotten a whack on the nose that may have injured him a bit. They're pretty tough so I would expect him to recover.
Was that fish caught on hook and line? If so, it may have made him more vulnerable to geting injured.

When I got out of bed this morning he was swimming around so I left both lights off. After work I turned both lights back off--wife had turned them on during the day--and he came back out of the log. He stayed out for a while and ate an earthworm and a cricket, so it's looking better all the time.

Thanks for the replies.

I asked the wife to go catch us some more shiners. She went out today but all she got was one blue gill and one more pumpkinseed. I brought them back though cuz they were bigger than would be ideal for me. They were 5 or 6 inches while the guys in the tank now are only about 3 to 3.5 inches...for now.

She thinks once the waters receed somewhat, which will happen since there are no hurricanes in town at the moment, she'll be able to find me some smaller fish again.....

I agree with Bruce. Smaller fallfish are usually seen in groups so he may feel a little timid without the rest of the school.
He may also have gotten a whack on the nose that may have injured him a bit. They're pretty tough so I would expect him to recover.
Was that fish caught on hook and line? If so, it may have made him more vulnerable to geting injured.

Oh, yes he was caught on a fly rod, so good point.

Thanks for the replies and your patince. Timmy the fall fish seems fine.

I got home from work today and "he" was swimming around the tank even though the light was on.

So I proceeded to drop about 10 baby shrimp on top of the water. Timmy grabbed 8 of them while the sun fish was lucky to come down with 2.....he's back to his old self!!! Eating like a little piggy again.

Life is good!