Will he need company really soon?

[tawnylane]

Hello all..

Have finally got my cichlid tank going: temp stabilized, chlorine gone, Bio-Spira in (with introduction of fish). Drove SEVERAL miles to the LFS with generally the best selection of cichlids and on two previous trips, all the species I wanted, and of course, this visit I find they were very soon going to replace their cichlid tanks with new ones to match the other tanks (go figure:rolleyes: ) so of course, have not reordered stock in a couple of weeks! Had only 1 specimen of the 5 fish I wanted and I didn't get anything... So today go to the LFS closer - they have only the black calvus juvenile that is harder to find - so I buy it. Eventually get it in the tank and it DISAPPEARS!!!!! We finally spotted it once, so I know its there - maybe in the rocks or behind the filter (black fish against the black acrylic:p )
So my question - will he feel more comfortable with more fish or can I take my time? And how soon should I attempt to feed and oh yeah how often? About a 1" juvi...

Thanks

[tawnylane]

Some help?

Added yellow labs and daffodil brichardi - calvus is still hiding. I have pulled the top off the rocks and he is in there. Anything I could do to get him to come out? or will it just take time? The others are perfectly happy...:confused:

[rich]

some small schooling fish could act as dithers to heolp draw him out of hiding. i havnt done africans before so i dont have a list of fish that will be at home in the water conditions that african cichlids prefer. im sure you could dig a list up easy enough though.

[tawnylane]

Thanks for the reply, Rich - I've thought about dithers...just didn't know if the hiding was perfectly normal behavior:p

[PumaWard]

My calvus's have never hidden, but I have 2. They are in with 3 guppies, 2 julies, and 2 leleupi. I think that a few dithers will help him come out.

[tawnylane]

Thanks! I'll give it a try!