Extremely Nervous Rainbow Cichlids - Looking For Suggestions

[KevinW]

I have two Rainbow Cichlids (Herotilipia Multispinosa) that I purchased in June from a local breeder. When I purchased these fish they were in a 33 gallon tank that had minimial decorations and did not seem to be overly stressed. They have been in a 55 gallon tank for 3 months. The tank, which had minimal decorations, was in my basement where there was little human traffic. Whenever I fed them they would scoot off to a corner or hide behind a piece of driftwood. Three weeks ago I moved them to a 33 gallon tank which has quite a few decorations / plants. This tank is in my study so I spend a lot of time in the room and going back and forth. The problem is that these fish spend nearly all of their time hiding in a corner behind a plant. If they ever do venture out and see someone they act extremely stressed banging up against the glass before eventually darting back to their corner. They will not even come out to feed. The only other occupants of the tank are one Peacock Gudgeon and one Endlers Livebearer.

I am not sure what to do. Do you think they will eventually get used to the human movement (I highly doubt this given the length of time they have displayed this behaviour)?

Do you think removing the decorations so that there is no place to hide therefore forcing them to face their fears would work or would this stress them so much they would get sick?

I am thinking dither fish might be the best solution any ideas on dithers that would help calm down these very very nerovous guys?

Any help is appreciated.

[Jayba]

Here is more than you ever wanted to know about your fish and their enviroment. How they deal with fear responses, diet etc.

I would feel they would be more comfortable with more of their own kind, security in number.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=ichthynicar&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DHerotilipia%2BMultispinosa%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari#search=%22Herotilipia%20Multispinosa%22

Edited October 1, 2012 by Jayba

[flipperocks]

I use rosy and tiger barbs, work fantastic, contrary to what ALOT of people say

[Jayba]

In theory any small fish that is out and about should work. They are there to make your shy fish think "it must be ok out there, those little guys aren't scared, hiding or eaten." small oblivious fish like Danios are good dithers.

HTH

[KevinW]

Thanks for the article Jay, it is very informative. By the way my fish are currently displaying the dark colouration which the article states is rare and could be an attempt to match the dark background and or could be an appeasement signal. Either way it is not a good sign.

Seeing as I already have an Endlers in the tank do you think a school of Endlers would help? I thought they would be too small but if the theory is that it must be safe if small fish are unafraid might this not work?

Flipperocks, do the Barbs give you any problems with fin nipping?

Thanks for the input.

[Vallisneria]

I used to keep H. Multispinosa, had a breeding pair and a couple others. I also found them very skittish and it didn't matter on the tank decorations. I added a couple celebes rainbowfish as I had them already but any of the small schooling fish should work. Adding the dithers did help a bit, the rainbow cichlids came out more but were still scared if they saw movement in the room.

Another thing that helped was covering the back and sides of the tank with a background.

Good luck, even though they were skittish they were still one of my fav cichlids.

[flipperocks]

no nipping at all, my rosys keep to them self