5 comments to “I have a newly set up 50 gallon freshwater aquarium with cichlids but they hide all the time. What can do?”

1. Jon V wrote:
   22. December 2008 at 2:01 pm :

   Patience, patience, and more patience basically. You have 50 gallons of space and that’s a good sized tank, however, you have intermixed species. In a tank such as this, you’re going to have fighting amongst males, and at the size of your fish, I doubt you are able to sex them accurately. Most likely the electric blues are the most peaceful of this bunch, discounting the pleco of course. They are probably taking cover in an area.

   You can add in more rocks and decorations to provide more cover, is one thing. Take out all your decorations and rocks for the time being now, and do your water change. This way there is no place for anyone to hide, and you can see if they are around or not. Do your water change and clean in the substrate, then replace your decorations in a new pattern. This will generate some confusion among the group and cause them to form new boundries. Keep in mind, males will be far more aggressive then the females in this case, so if you continually see an onset of aggression, more then likely, all the different species you have there, are all males.

2. Grayline wrote:
   24. December 2008 at 9:06 pm :

   Cichlids naturally like to hide. They will eventually become more comfortable in their surroundings and start to venture out. be patient

3. maneatingcatfish wrote:
   26. December 2008 at 11:57 pm :

   assuming there’s nothing wrong with your water. then the fish are still being shy. you could wait for them to get more confident which shouldnt take that long or you could listen to your friend and add some silver dollars or other fast, schooling fish to draw the shy ones out. something that wont get eaten or if you prefer, some feeder fish

4. Ghapy wrote:
   28. December 2008 at 8:48 am :

   Just give it time, they’ll come around. Cichlids usually take time to get used to new tanks and new owners.

   In the mean time, you’d best take care with your stocking. Those scats are completely out of place. Maybe if you are lucky things will work, but my guess is that eventually they will be targeted. African Rift lake cichlids are unique and different then fish from anywhere else in the world, which is why it’s best not to stray far from this biotope. I don’t recommend silver dollars, not with rift lake cichlids. Silver dollars are calm fish from planted environments. Rift lake cichlids are extremely feisty and active fish from rocky environments. And remember - the more mature these fish get, the more territorial they get, and it’s a common mistake for beginners to think they’ve beaten the odds because it’s ‘working so far’. Nows your chance to set things up right before problems start.

   If you want to add anything, it’s best to add more of what you already have. The idea of ‘dither’ fish to increase activity works with many new world cichlid species, but doesn’t really apply to these fish Higher stocking levels of their own kinds will do the same job.

   Cichlids are very social fish anyway and keeping them solo is missing so much of what they offer. Electric yellows are a social grouping fish in particular, so feel free to add more of them especially. You don’t need to worry about gender with them either.

   Cichlids can hide in very tight spaces, so your electric blue may or may not be dead - the only way to tell is to remove all the rocks and look. ‘Electric Blue’ can mean two fish - Fryeri or Johanni. How I would stock them would differ depending which one it is.

5. tikitiki wrote:
   29. December 2008 at 10:07 pm :

   Good answers, nothing more to add other then your scats will require a brackish to marine set up as they get older.

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