I have a 6" male Beani alone in a 90g tank. All he does is hide up behind one of the filters all day and only eats when the lights are out. His tank is in my fish room which is away from alot of foot traffic. Ive tried dithers, other cichlids, catfish, and plecos. He kills everything in about 5 minuts then goes back to hiding. Ive tried drift wood, caves, pots, weighted and floating plants and nothing makes him swim around. He's such a beautiful fish and I want to show him off but the tank looks empty because he HIDES!!! What experience does anyone have w this or a similar fish and how do you bring them out of their shells?
Male Beani help
- Thread starter remme
- Start date
Id move him to a high traffic area, take everything but substrate out of the tank and lower the water level enough so that he cant hide behind the filters.
Eventually, with no place to hide and seeing you as the only food source, he should get over it. Its worked for me on several occasions.
A TV close to him works well in conditioning him to movement outside the tank, especially if its a big one and you leave it on when youre not in the room.
Eventually, with no place to hide and seeing you as the only food source, he should get over it. Its worked for me on several occasions.
A TV close to him works well in conditioning him to movement outside the tank, especially if its a big one and you leave it on when youre not in the room.
I think that's just the way Beani are, skittish. You might try large dithers that he can't kill. Large Tinfoil barbs or something like that. It's not gonna be easy adding anything to that tank after he's used to be alone.
VRWC is on the right track. Put a TV near his tank so that he gets use to something moving, or a statue of some sort in front of his tank with a face on it. He is acting like he would if he were in the lake and you just dropped by. He would run and hide.
the 4 growouts i have are always on the move and hide very little. Some fish are like that it has nothing to do with it just being a beani cuz thats how they are because thats far from the truth. Give it time and remove his hiding spots
You have pics of him. How long ago did you move him? This can take days makybe even a week+ to get him to be more active