Lazy Fish...

[Andy-lee]

My fish are acting quite boring, is there anything i can do?
 
The tank is 180 litre and the stocking is,
10 harlequin rasbora
5 albino corys
2 angel fish
4 Bolivian rams
1 bristlenose
1 golden nugget plec
 
Everything is fine in the tank water stats are good and it has been set up a few years, most of the tank mates have been in over around 2 years but they never seem to do much. The tank has recently changed from fully planted but even  then they weren't the most active of fish.
 

 
 
As you can see from the picture the majority of the tank goes unused most of the time, the angel fish hide away in the corners, harlequins never stray far away from a group in one lower part and the Bolivians just hide around the rocks. The albino corys are about the most active and venture around the tank but it just isn't enough for the size of the tank . I was just wondering is there anything i can do to encourage activity or any slight stocking changes a could make to make things a little more interesting?
 
Opinions and advice more than welcome
Thanks
Andy
 
 
 

 

[TallTree01]

Fish that are lazy normally have 1 or more of the following problems:
They are overfed
They are cold
Foul water
Stressed by tankmates

 

[Andy-lee]

Thanks for the reply, the fish are fed once a day or every other but that is normal isnt it?
The temperature in the tank is around 24 degrees celsius is this a good average for the stock that i have? As for the water and stressed id like to think that this isn't an issue as the water tests coming back fine and the tank seems peaceful with only the bolivians having the odd little tiff
Thanks
Andy

 

[TallTree01]

Try feeding a little less and see how things differ on that day. I did this with my tetras as I feared I was over feeding. They were much more interactive than normal and have stayed that way ever since. To put it in perspective, I have 9 neon tetras. Every day I give them 4-5 small ( 1-2 mm ) pellets. The tetras normally can't eat a pellet all in one go so they break it in several smaller pieces allowing others to eat too. This means that each tetra gets around 1/2 a pellet daily. Try to use that as to how much to feed your fish.

E.g tetra is 2.5cm. Tetra eats 1 mm of food.

 

[Andy-lee]

That could explain the lazy angel fish issue then, when i feed them i use crisp flakes which the angel fish eat before the others even get a look in. Then for the corys i add pellets which they sometimes come down to eat too. Its a difficult one to stop them eating everything i put in for the other fish
Your help is appreciated, thanks

 

[TallTree01]

Crumbling the flakes helps a lot so the faster fish can't get all the pieces at once. I realize how frustrating it is to have fish that Just sit there doing nothing so wanted to save you some time

 

[Andy-lee]

I will try doing that as from today then, ill crumble the food up and put less in and see if it helps ive been reading ablut 'dither' could it also be them being shy? Like you said it is very frustrating when theres nothing going on in your tank

 

[TallTree01]

I think rams are normally pretty timid fish. The angel fish I think won't need dithers as there pretty fearless. Dithers is more for really shy cichlids. I think harlequins are your dithers at the moment.