Why Do My Fish Hide?

[(GTV)Chris]

Hi,

My tank is doing very well with the 5 leopard Dannio's I have.
I have two artificial plants at either end but the fish just seem to hide behind the right hand one. I never see them.
Sometimes I will see them in the morning whilst feeding them and then they hide again.
It is a 90ltr tank.
Should I stock it with a few more plants and ornaments to help them get the confidence?
I have certain reservations about this as I want to be able to totally clean the gravel.
My last tank was a disaster as I had too many large items in it and I couldn't clean it thoroughly.
Is it time to add a few more fish to help cycle it.
Nitrite is 0
Amonia is 0.2
Ph is 7.8
Water is beautifully clear (Some brown algae).

Regards
Chris

 

[Spooky76]

Hey
1. You should be able to clean still with real plants...I have over 45 plants in a 240ltr tank and can still clean it.
2. Ammonia should be 0. Anything more is lethal to your fish. Water change until its 0.
3. Your fish will start to come out more as they settle in. Danios are usually pretty outgoing fish. A few more plants (real are better) plus - get your water right. How often are your lights on and how long for ?
4. Anything in the room scaring the fish ? Loud noises ? lots of movement ?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

they're hiding because of the poor water quality while your tank cycles, the ammonia level is v dangerous, the fish will be unwell and unhappy and as such they hide, until you get the water quality sorted you can expect this sort of behaviour.

Just imagine if someone shut you up in a room full of exhaust fumes or something else nasty, you wouldn't exactly be happy and jumping about playing with your mates would you?!

 

[Hewitt]

Try Changing 25% Of The Water

 

[cloudnine]

they're hiding because of the poor water quality while your tank cycles, the ammonia level is v dangerous, the fish will be unwell and unhappy and as such they hide, until you get the water quality sorted you can expect this sort of behaviour.

Just imagine if someone shut you up in a room full of exhaust fumes or something else nasty, you wouldn't exactly be happy and jumping about playing with your mates would you?!

Nicely put wiggle!

 

[(GTV)Chris]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. Water test for amonia is now completely clear after water change so I assume that means 0% The nitrite has risen slightly to 0.1 which i believe happens during cycling? Perhaps someone could answer this.
I will have look at the weekend for some nice plants. Any recommendations??
I have a 2 and a half year old son, maybe that's why they hide? Although he doesn't really go into the room the tank is in.
I am slowly going to introduce some more fish so there should be a nice community.

Many thanks

Chris

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes the nitrite is part of the cycling process, it will have the same affect on the fish as the ammonia did.

trust me, it's not your 2 yr old son that's the problem, it's water quality.

you should be doing daily 25% water changes until ammonia and nitrite both read 0, after that you'll start to see an improvement in the fishes behaviour.

 

[waterdrop]

Chris,

When you get advice from miss wiggle you are in luck. She is one of the experts on this site and I've seen her help many people. I would use her advice as action items.

At the risk of boring you with things you already know.. Water changes are performed in partial amounts (25,50,75%) because fish don't like rapid changes in pH or temperature. The water you siphon out gives you an opportunity to clean your gravel (that's good because the things you clean out are the very things that add to the poisonous ammonia and nitrite.) The water you put back in from your tap should be dechlorinated/dechloraminated (with a dechlor product like Prime or Stress Coat or other) and you should match the temp within about 2 degrees (hand touch estimate is good enough for this.) A few hours later (I believe) and the fish have acclimated to the pH & temp and can again handle yet another water change. The repeated changes bring the water closer and closer to tap parameters (like 0ppm ammonia and nitrate and usually a higher pH (most processes while cycling a tank will tend to pull the pH down.)

Good Luck! ~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Chris,

When you get advice from miss wiggle you are in luck. She is one of the experts on this site and I've seen her help many people. I would use her advice as action items.

At the risk of boring you with things you already know.. Water changes are performed in partial amounts (25,50,75%) because fish don't like rapid changes in pH or temperature. The water you siphon out gives you an opportunity to clean your gravel (that's good because the things you clean out are the very things that add to the poisonous ammonia and nitrite.) The water you put back in from your tap should be dechlorinated/dechloraminated (with a dechlor product like Prime or Stress Coat or other) and you should match the temp within about 2 degrees (hand touch estimate is good enough for this.) A few hours later (I believe) and the fish have acclimated to the pH & temp and can again handle yet another water change. The repeated changes bring the water closer and closer to tap parameters (like 0ppm ammonia and nitrate and usually a higher pH (most processes while cycling a tank will tend to pull the pH down.)

Good Luck! ~~waterdrop~~

flattery gets you everywhere waterdop! lol

re the water changes, there's v little evidence that sudden pH changes harm fish actually. v interesting post from bignose floating around somewhere on the subject if you want a read. probably in the scientific section.

likewise for temp, a sudden temp drop will often trigger spawning and a lot of fish actually like it. we never match water temps, just run water in straight from the cold tap. Andywg posted up ages ago a simulation of the temp drop assuming average tank and tap water temperatures, for a 30% change (on any size tank) the water temp will not drop more than 1/2oC which is absolutley fine for all but the most delicate fish. if we do a change of 50% or more then we just run the water into the tank slowly (we do changes with a hose pipe, not buckets) so the heater has time to get to work on it. never had a single problem doing this.

 

[waterdrop]

Chris,

When you get advice from miss wiggle you are in luck. She is one of the experts on this site and I've seen her help many people. I would use her advice as action items.

At the risk of boring you with things you already know.. Water changes are performed in partial amounts (25,50,75%) because fish don't like rapid changes in pH or temperature. The water you siphon out gives you an opportunity to clean your gravel (that's good because the things you clean out are the very things that add to the poisonous ammonia and nitrite.) The water you put back in from your tap should be dechlorinated/dechloraminated (with a dechlor product like Prime or Stress Coat or other) and you should match the temp within about 2 degrees (hand touch estimate is good enough for this.) A few hours later (I believe) and the fish have acclimated to the pH & temp and can again handle yet another water change. The repeated changes bring the water closer and closer to tap parameters (like 0ppm ammonia and nitrate and usually a higher pH (most processes while cycling a tank will tend to pull the pH down.)

Good Luck! ~~waterdrop~~

flattery gets you everywhere waterdop! lol

re the water changes, there's v little evidence that sudden pH changes harm fish actually. v interesting post from bignose floating around somewhere on the subject if you want a read. probably in the scientific section.

likewise for temp, a sudden temp drop will often trigger spawning and a lot of fish actually like it. we never match water temps, just run water in straight from the cold tap. Andywg posted up ages ago a simulation of the temp drop assuming average tank and tap water temperatures, for a 30% change (on any size tank) the water temp will not drop more than 1/2oC which is absolutley fine for all but the most delicate fish. if we do a change of 50% or more then we just run the water into the tank slowly (we do changes with a hose pipe, not buckets) so the heater has time to get to work on it. never had a single problem doing this.

Darn, the old sacred cows keep having to graze farther and farther to find grass.

I knew about the temp topic but the pH info is a surprise. O boy, more fun to persue over in science section! So are there simple and reasonable statements for beginners that explain the wisdom of choosing a particular percentage change and explain the reasonable nature of waiting at least an hour or so before the next change?

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Python use gets better with practice - managed to keep the 11-year-old from spraying me all over with faucet water last night!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

personally i've never heard that, if you need to do a large amount of water changing it's better to do 1 big change than several small ones. reason being you actually change out less of the water, use this example

if you do a 50% water change, then fill up with new water. then 1 hr later do another 50% water change you'd think you've changed 100% of the water...... but not so, cos the second change you take out half of the clean water too, so it actually only equates to a 75% change overall.

if you're having serious problems and need to change water every day just do 1 big change a day.

there's plenty of 'old wisdom' that still gets bandied around in fishkeeping, i like to question the 'knowledge' that we are given and find out why this is so or if it's just rubbish people made up cos they didn't understand any better.

i really don't have a scientific mind but anything i'm not sure of i just post up in the science section and you can pretty much guarantee bignose and andy will be able to help!

 

[vinylman]

Chris,
Is there any reason you don't have live plants?. They'll benefit both the fish and the water. You don't have to have loads, but the more you have, the more your fish will come out. Sounds silly, I know, but the more cover they have, the more confident they'll feel about being out in the open. There's loads you can have that don't need any special attention.