I never see my fish!

[angyles]

My tank is a 150, heavily planted, LOTS of caves and rock work with tunnels in it, and it always looks empty! I've got kribs, cories, khuli loaches, clown loaches, SAEs, gouramis, rummy noses, and I jsut added some sailfin molies, and it seems unless I just put food in the tank, everyone chills in the forest or caves. When people come over, they say the tank looks empty and I know it's not. Does anyone else have this 'problem' in their planted tank? I think the fish are happy, not hiding in fear. When there weren't as many plants, everyone swam around in the open more. I'm not complaining, just commenting, really.

I kinda wish I saw them more :huh: If you stare for 10 minutes, you'll eventually see most everyone, but you have to FOCUS.

 

[tap]

yea i have a 40 gallon tank that i custom built a sweet styrofoam rock background with caves in it, and i have alot of silk plants in their so its kinda like yours, and i have 14 neon tetras, 2 blue dwarf gouramis, 2 tiger barbs and 2 albino tiger barbs and most of the time i just see the barbs and a few of the neons, but the gourmias take to their territorys (caves) i think its just what they are natural "programmed" to do......

 

[lateinningmagic]

Two words: Zebra Danios

They swim all the time and all over the place

 

[tanker]

Two words: Zebra Danios

They swim all the time and all over the place

Or some barbs. These are dither fish. Fish that do not hide and "entice" other fish to come out----like "Hey look---see those other fish swimming out in the open--it must be safe".

 

[chesterthehero]

i dunno. i kinda like hide and seek fish. its a real treat when you get to see one (or more). mine all come out in droves at feeding time.

inkyjenn

 

[Squawkbert]

I fail to see a problem here...

Think of it as being a new/different tank every time you look.
Toss a little food in when you have friends over.

If Zebra Danios aren't your thing, try Cardinal Tetras. They're pretty shy about going into plants (natural fear of Leaf fish & large Angels?). Same is pretty true of Pristellas, Black Neons. I can usually see these species in my tank. Mollies, Cories, Otos - very spotty with respect to visibility.

 

[angyles]

you know, I think that's the difference. I used to have rosy barbs and diamond tetras, and saw everyone all the time. It is fun playing hide and seek with the fish, but at the same time there's all this swimming room that's jsut empty! My clowns only come out at night now, whereass I used to always see them.

I think I'll look into adding a small group of cherry barbs. Looks like they stay smaller than my long ifnned rosies did, and are good at drwaing out the shy fish.

 

[jm1212]

do you have any pics of your tank? sometimes there is actually such a thing as too many plants or caves.

 

[angyles]

Too many? I had to build in a lot of caves for the kribs, clowns, khulis, and the striped raphael. everyone else is in the forest of wisteria mostly. I'll try and get some pics up this evening. There really is a ton of open swimming space though, and the whole front is an open sandy beach.