Established Royal Gramma Not Coming Out

My nano has had a Royal Gramma and a Yellow Clown Goby living together for 2+ years and everything has always been fine. However in the past two weeks or so the Gramma has stopped coming out of his cave, even during what used to be his favorite time... Feeding time. He doesn't seem to really get any food and if this continues I think he will starve to death. The only thing I can think that may have caused this is stress from looking around in the tank at night with a bright flash light. I'm not usually much of a night watcher, but a couple weeks ago I was looking in the tank after lights out with a bright cree flash light. Any thoughts?

 

I blinded a fish this way once so it is definitely possible.

 

I don't think he has been blinded since I have seen him move around a few times he just seems terrified. Wish there was something I could do.

 

I have a very similar problem with an establish Royal Gramma. Ive had her for a litte over two years. I used to have a 50 gallon I recently upgraded a few months ago to a 125. The Gramma was literally the diva of the tank in the 50 gallon.

Then came the day to actually move all the fish and coral from the old tank to the new tank. She took it pretty hard. When we started dissembling the rock work, she didn't even run - she just went to a corner of the tank and just sat there. if a fish could look sad and frightened, she did.

When it was her time to move, we latterly just reached in and picked her up - she didn't even fight it.

The next day in the new tank she was hiding and has pretty much not come out since - at least not when I'm near the tank. I've caught her a few times in the early morning swimming the tank, but staying really low to the ground. When I have caught her out of her cave, she looks absolutely frightened -almost frozen with fear. She wont move until I walk away.

I know she's getting fed because I drop a few pieces of food in her direction and I see her grab it - but only if it goes into her cave.

lately she has been venturing out between caves, but only within a small nook she has found so as not to be seen. :-/

 

My fish seems to be pretty close to that OnlyTono, it has moved between 3 different caves but I never see it make the move. Even when I'm at a distance I never see the fish come out. I've seen it get I think 2 mysis shrimp in the past week that just happened to go right past the grammas face.

 

If it's moving around between caves, then it'll probably be OK - you may not get to see it anymore, but it wont starve. Over time, mine has gotten a little more bold, so I'm hoping it will just take time and she'll be back to her old self.

 

some fish just take a little longer than others to settle completely i had a firefish that would only come out of its cave to eat for about 4 months. Gramma's are strange fish to begin with, so unless it stops coming out to eat I think it should be ok.