Fish house

Ok, so i have 2 large rocks, 1 which the fish constantly stay in, and the other is rather long, but limited hiding space: ie: they can be seen where ever they are by this rock. (I dont know how else to explain it).

Now i want to remove their permanent home and let them get used to the other rock feature for a few weeks.

Question being.......is this cruel? will they still sleep at night (figure of speech), or should i just leave them to get used to it over time?

 

Hi Snail

What fish are you housing and in what size tank?

There must be a reason for the fish to be constantly 'hiding' in this rock.


Kendall

 

got 4 parrot fish.....Have a 244L tank.

 

I think you should try and see what happens when you remove it, maybe they'l adjust just fine. I had a similar situation and when I removed the "home" the fish went totally nuts looking for some other place to hide so I decided to put it back in to calm him down.

 

hi snail..

in all honesty, the fact that they only ave one decent place makes them feel even more scared and insecure..

i know how it feels, you have these fish in this huge tank but you never see them coz they all hiding in a heap in one little corner or cave? you may as well have an empty tank right?

fish need to feel safe befor they will swim in the open.. providing them with lots more hiding places woould make them feel that if there is any danger, they can quickly duck into a cave or something. so with only the one rock to hide in, they will rather stay there..

trust me on this, add lots more hidey holes and you will see them swimming about happily as ever..

you could also add dither fish to make them feel safer, but you would have to research these to find out what type would be compatible with your parrot fish. your best bet is to copy their natural habitat and add lots of hiding places

good luck dude

 

mydummyname +1

 

Good info

 

All good advice @mydummyname, only if I'm not mistaken, Parrots are Hybrids are they not? So therefore do not have a 'Natural' habitat. Other than that though, all good advice, and as said, adding more palces to hide will actually encourage them to come out more in the open.

Regards
G!

 

hi Big g. hybrids of which types of fish? if we know that we could perhaps try to deduce which habitat might make them feel safer?

 

I believe they are said to be hybrids of a Central American Cichlid (Midas or Red Devil perhaps) and a South American Cichlid (Possibly a Severum). The truth is that no one actually seems to know for sure?

So, habitats I'm sure would be quite different for each?
Maybe an interesting piece of wood with lots of nooks and cranneys would help? Then they will have lots more in the tank around them to feel more comfortable with?

Maybe it would also help if @snail could post a pic of the tank as it currently is?

Regards
G!

 

very interesting, this means that going forward would actually be sort of an experimental thing...

what one could do, luckily its quite a large tank, you could sort of try two sorts of habitats, try to decorate one half of the tank with the wood as
Big G suggests and then do another part perhaps with cave or rock like formations and try to see which side they take more of a liking to?

once you see which side they favour, you just do the whole setup that way.. it would be a real learning curve, and not a quick thing either, fish can take weeks or even months befor they settle in and you can be sure they are happy with a certain setup.

pics would really be a good way to start tho..

 

Alright, here is 2 pics, the rock on the left is the rock they constantly hide in. It's not that they are always in there, its just if someone walks past the tank they swim into the rock like a bullet, but if you are sitting in the lounge for a while they do come out. sorry about the quality of pics, but i used my phone to take them.

 

Nice tank, by the way, attractive setup.
My opinion: definitely include more hiding places. More plants (if you're interested in live plants?), some wood, some rockery. It does look a bit bare and like the other members are saying, perhaps this does not instill any feeling of 'safety' in the fish. (they may feel 'exposed'.)

 

@snail hi i think the tank looks very nice, some suggestions:

you could bring the rock in the left hand corner forward a bit so that they can also swim freely behind it. the centre rock/ornament is positioned nicely, what you could do is put some long leaved plants a few cm in front of it so that its a bit less bare, then they can swim between the plants and this large ornament and also behind the ornament.. sort of create a little space for them to swim in.. i dont know how they do with real plants but if possible i would put lots of plants in there between the rocks and ornaments..

some people make the common mistake of putting all the ornaments right at the back of the tank, trying to force the fish to swim in the front, but just the opposite happens and the fish look for places to hide, the trick is to bring the ornament a little bit forward, so that they can safely duck out of sight when they feel threatened.. and this actually encourages them to come out in the open more.

i know this because i did the same thing, believe me..
please keep us updated

 

Hi all,

The tank is actually very wide, and the fish have more than enough space to swim behind the rocks. I think what i will do is move them slightly forward, and maybe get another rock for hiding and put it on the other side of the tank to see how they feel about that, maybe even move that fake plant on the right.....and put it in front of the big rock?

ps: i dont want live plants.

 

Would look awesome with a bunch of plants

 

ya i think you should try that, experiment a bit, try a ferw different things and see what works for you...

 

Ok, so i have added in a new rock, as well as a new fish to experiment. The new fish generally swims everywhere, but the others still hide.

Would it be cruel of me to take their home away for a few weeks to get used to the new rock?

 

hi, its looking nice actually, i like it a lot, try adding some more stuff and also a backround pic so that they dont feel so exposed. and no rather dont try to force them into the open, they are more likely to try to hide even more..

give them some time to acclimatise and get used to the new stuff...

here is a trick to try...

for the next week or so, dont feed the tank as you normally would, rather whenever you approach or pass the tank, just give them a tiny little bit of food, throughout the day, like every 2 hours or so, let them associate you with food, this is a method that has had lots of success with getting shy fish to trust you a bit more.. rememeber the trick is not to over feed, they just need to associate you with food and as you will be adding food to the tank constantly, you dont need to give them the other noremal feedings, coz the little bits should add up to the amount of food you would normally feed the tank in a day.

remember some fish can take weeks or even months to settle in and feel safe, so dont give up


what other fish have you added to the tank?

 

i added another parrot fish to the tank