How Much Is Too Much Decor
- Thread starter Roger Mcfish
- Start date
Substrate is caribsea peace river mixed with aragonite (crushed coral in one of the fx6 filters) to maintain a pH of 7.8 due to having soft water.
Does he sit in the middle there? He’s alone now too?
It definitely doesn’t looked cluttered at all. It’s got some line of sight breaks, no overpowered lighting, and not a crazy amount of flow. There are two schools of thought as some people do very minimal decor to prevent fish from claiming a territory to “reduce” aggression, you see this fairly frequently when people jam 75 aggressive cichlids into a tank with almost zero decor(it’s also required by law to brag online to say it’s working). The other is to aquascape which encourages each fish has the ability to claim an area while providing ample swimming room. You could certainly re-arrange the tank. Dithers such as Poecilia latipinna could work as long as they’re not tiny, I don’t know what size were the fish he ate was?
I’m sitting here in front of this one, but I just did a couple of rock piles and a stump. I try to keep the hardscape in the lower half to have adequate swimming space above(and I’m not very good at it, Lol).
PS Don’t tell Duane I have 50 Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis and 3 random Inpaichthys kerri in there.
It definitely doesn’t looked cluttered at all. It’s got some line of sight breaks, no overpowered lighting, and not a crazy amount of flow. There are two schools of thought as some people do very minimal decor to prevent fish from claiming a territory to “reduce” aggression, you see this fairly frequently when people jam 75 aggressive cichlids into a tank with almost zero decor(it’s also required by law to brag online to say it’s working). The other is to aquascape which encourages each fish has the ability to claim an area while providing ample swimming room. You could certainly re-arrange the tank. Dithers such as Poecilia latipinna could work as long as they’re not tiny, I don’t know what size were the fish he ate was?
I’m sitting here in front of this one, but I just did a couple of rock piles and a stump. I try to keep the hardscape in the lower half to have adequate swimming space above(and I’m not very good at it, Lol).
PS Don’t tell Duane I have 50 Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis and 3 random Inpaichthys kerri in there.
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Don't tell Duane a lot on here! LolDoes he sit in the middle there? He’s alone now too?
It definitely doesn’t looked cluttered at all. It’s got some line of sight breaks, no overpowered lighting, and not a crazy amount of flow. There are two schools of thought as some people do very minimal decor to prevent fish from claiming a territory to “reduce” aggression, you see this fairly frequently when people jam 75 aggressive cichlids into a tank with almost zero decor(it’s also required by law to brag online to say it’s working). The other is to aquascape which encourages each fish has the ability to claim an area while providing ample swimming room. You could certainly re-arrange the tank. Dithers such as Poecilia latipinna could work as long as they’re not tiny, I don’t know what size were the fish he ate was?
I’m sitting here in front of this one, but I just did a couple of rock piles and a stump. I try to keep the hardscape in the lower half to have adequate swimming space above(and I’m not very good at it, Lol).
View attachment 1574321
PS Don’t tell Duane I have 50 Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis and 3 random Inpaichthys kerri in there.
My carpintis just goes nuts when I walk by
I’ve always had a challenging time with the longer they’re kept solo, the harder it becomes to integrate tank mates. I know that I mentioned nigrofasciata before as they work splendidly as target fish. I’d try a trio of 1M/2F’s if you could find a decent size fish or start growing them out.
I have a few growing out. Was hoping for pair to form so I can grow out a bunch more cons. I have a laid back male, one nut job male and two laid back females, all in another tank
I'm only into cichlids in a very casual way, but those I've kept all became very outgoing in a relatively short period of time. Even in a community of large predatory fish, I had a pair of Firemouths and a pair of Convicts who would breed regularly. Their fry rarely moved far from one of the rockpiles or large pieces of driftwood, into which they would retreat whenever a large mouth seemed too close for comfort, but they remained visibly on display the vast majority of time.
Hiding all the time is more of a problem, IMHO, with some catfish and others. Even in those cases, having more shelters and retreats almost always seems to increase the confidence of the fish in question, usually leading them to become more visible rather than less. When they know they can dart into any of a number of handy hidey holes, they are less afraid and more outgoing.
I think that some cichlids are just so embarrassed by the non-biotopically-correct stuff in their tanks...not only tankmates, but also including substrate, species of driftwood, variety of stones, and especially plant species...that they hide out of shame.
In such cases, providing the fish with a pair of correctly-sized Groucho-Marx-style glasses-and-moustache disguises can work wonders.
Hiding all the time is more of a problem, IMHO, with some catfish and others. Even in those cases, having more shelters and retreats almost always seems to increase the confidence of the fish in question, usually leading them to become more visible rather than less. When they know they can dart into any of a number of handy hidey holes, they are less afraid and more outgoing.
I think that some cichlids are just so embarrassed by the non-biotopically-correct stuff in their tanks...not only tankmates, but also including substrate, species of driftwood, variety of stones, and especially plant species...that they hide out of shame.
In such cases, providing the fish with a pair of correctly-sized Groucho-Marx-style glasses-and-moustache disguises can work wonders.
Hiding all the time is more of a problem, IMHO, with some catfish and others. Even in those cases, having more shelters and retreats almost always seems to increase the confidence of the fish in question, usually leading them to become more visible rather than less. When they know they can dart into any of a number of handy hidey holes, they are less afraid and more outgoing.
I think that some cichlids are just so embarrassed by the non-biotopically-correct stuff in their tanks...not only tankmates, but also including substrate, species of driftwood, variety of stones, and especially plant species...that they hide out of shame.
That’s proper funny, well done lad!!
Not gonna lie, I thought it might have been the substrate being to dark. Today I did notice the carpintis come out finally to grab pellets then shoot back to his spot versus him used to being on PFS (lighter brown).I'm only into cichlids in a very casual way, but those I've kept all became very outgoing in a relatively short period of time. Even in a community of large predatory fish, I had a pair of Firemouths and a pair of Convicts who would breed regularly. Their fry rarely moved far from one of the rockpiles or large pieces of driftwood, into which they would retreat whenever a large mouth seemed too close for comfort, but they remained visibly on display the vast majority of time.
Hiding all the time is more of a problem, IMHO, with some catfish and others. Even in those cases, having more shelters and retreats almost always seems to increase the confidence of the fish in question, usually leading them to become more visible rather than less. When they know they can dart into any of a number of handy hidey holes, they are less afraid and more outgoing.
I think that some cichlids are just so embarrassed by the non-biotopically-correct stuff in their tanks...not only tankmates, but also including substrate, species of driftwood, variety of stones, and especially plant species...that they hide out of shame.
Not sure the glasses will work lol
