My fish seem scared and hide all the time

[ashtin49]

Hi,

I have a 45 gallon ocatgon tank. It has mainly tetras, cories, non aggresive fish.
I bought a Gourami, which I was told was a non aggresive community fish. Well, other fish starting getting picked on and nipped at so I took him back to the store.
Not sure if this is why my fish never seem to swim around the center of the tank. They hide in the back behind plants and structures all the time. Barely even come out for food. The Gourami has been gone for 3 weeks now and I've bought some new tetras since he is been gone and they seem to hide too. Any suggestions as to why they do this? I understand the older fish may still think the Gourami is around but the new fish never saw him???

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Well, the first thing i noticed is your neon shoal. As a general rule of thumb it is advised people have at least 6 to 8 neons minimum but your shoal is in a quite a large tank and to prevent them from feeling insecure/stressed i would raise their numbers to at least 10+ in this case. You will know when your neon shoal feels safer as they separate into smaller groups around the tank instead of being in one big shoal all the time- their colors will also come out alot more.
Also, you only have one cory and they like to be in groups of at least 4 to 5 as they are shoaling fish(although not to the extent neons are, they still need their own kind to feel secure/safe) and i would do this too.

 

[Fishist]

Well, the first thing i noticed is your neon shoal. As a general rule of thumb it is advised people have at least 6 to 8 neons minimum but your shoal is in a quite a large tank and to prevent them from feeling insecure/stressed i would raise their numbers to at least 10+ in this case. You will know when your neon shoal feels safer as they separate into smaller groups around the tank instead of being in one big shoal all the time- their colors will also come out alot more.
Also, you only have one cory and they like to be in groups of at least 4 to 5 as they are shoaling fish(although not to the extent neons are, they still need their own kind to feel secure/safe) and i would do this too.

I agree with this.

Do you have anything else in the tank because I noticed you said "mainly tetras, cories....."?

 

[ashtin49]

Sorry Tokis, my signature hadn't been updated in a long while. I have since updated it.

 

[jflowers]

Where is your tank? If its in a place that does not have regular human traffic, then they will not get used to it. I have tanks in my living room where the fish are so comfortable they will nip my hands when water changing. I also have tanks in other less used rooms and the fish are very shy.

I also agree with the other posts, fish will be more outgoing if there are other fish with them, more so if they are the same fish.

Jon

 

[ashtin49]

The tank is a corner tank and really does not have a lot of traffic, good point. I guess I was thinking since they came from fish stores they should and would always be used to people around.

Also, from the other posts I think I will try to add more to each group.

Thanks!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would also like to add(although im not certain on it) that glass catfish like to be in groups of 4 to 5 as like neons and corys, they are quite insecure fish.
good luck with the re-stocking

 

[jflowers]

I would also like to add(although im not certain on it) that glass catfish like to be in groups of 4 to 5 as like neons and corys, they are quite insecure fish.
good luck with the re-stocking

Yep, they do.

Jon