Shy Fish

[jlevi]

I'm a beginner with a 50 gallon tank. I've bought 10 tetras, and 6 zebra loaches. There are no real plants, but i have 6 pieces of natural wood (bought from an aquatic shop), and some bubbles.
Some dumb questions
1) The tetras hide in one corner at the back - is this normal, can i get them to swim around a bit?
2) The zebra loaches are even harder to see, I can never see more than 2 at a time. Could they be dead somewhere, or in the filter.
3) what should I buy next to generate some activity (nb if all goes well I will add some discuss in due course).
4) The wood is getting all furry (white stuff) - is this right? what should i do? is there a good fish to keep the wood clean?
5) when i feed the fish (with large flakes) they don't seem to seek it out (and i've cut down to once every 3 days so they should be hungry).

Thanks, and apologies if all this is a bit stupid.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Do you feed the loaches flakes as well?

You might want to feed the tetras small pelleted foods, and if you feed flakes, since they do not go up to the surface, you might want to crush them up a bit and make them sink so the tetras can see them.

Other fish to add: zebra danios, lots of activity.

Loaches, I'm not sure about these, but I take it they are hiding. If you're worried, you could probably move around the driftwood to see if you can't find all of them.

The white stuff sounds like fungus... I take it the wood is real? in which case, I cannot exactly tell you how to clean it off, since I have never had a problem with fungus on decorations.

Plants, esp. live (since live plants look a lot better, would make your tetras feel safer, methinks, thereby getting them to move around more.

As for the discus, you will have to have amazingly stable conditions to get them to thrive and breed, but I'm sure over time you'll be able to make that happen.

 

[Leslie]

How long has the tank been running? Would you happen to have water parameters?