Substrate only tanks

[richkid]

Anyone have any thoughts or experience on community setups with substrate only no decor? Obviously gives us nonstop lines of sight, but I'm wondering how it would affect my fish. Thanks
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[Yank-Keeper-Scott]

The dominant fish will thrive and beat the living **** out of te others as they will have no where to hide IME.

Plant pots work wonders


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[TankDempsey]

The dominant fish will thrive and beat the living **** out of te others as they will have no where to hide IME.

Plant pots work wonders


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+1

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[Azedenkae]

In my experience it's quite the opposite. XD My cichlids go 'meh' then shoal together instead.

 

[richkid]

appreciate the feedback. I've seen a few vids on youtube like this and it seems to be like Aze says that the fish tend to just swim around together, maybe because theres no territory to claim? I saw my friends tank and it had had the deco removed for about a week as it was being treated with meds, another story, and all the fish seemed to just exist together in there. One of my LFS keeps several large cichlids in tanks together without deco and they all seem to just float there. I'm not sure if that will be the case of maybe they will fight...I was wondering more so if that will cause long term stress or sickness due to stress for lack of cover.

 

[Nova 8]

In my experiance it depends on the fish your keeper, but lack of cover can end with one fish in the corner stressed to hell. But even with decor the same can still happen.

 

[AllAlaskan]

My Oscar tank has nothing in it with two Oscars in it. I had to take every thing out because they kept banging themselves up on the rock and driftwood trying to move stuff around. So far they have been just fine, swimming around together like best buds. I think it kind of depends on the fish too.

 

[richkid]

Well thats the issue I'm facing. Most of the fish are doing fine with the decor. But my big clumsy Oscar is constantly loosing scales on driftwood and he's so aggressive when I drop food in he jumps around and almost impales himself of stuff. Greedy lol.

 

[Azedenkae]

Well I have a tank with decor, my Green Texas took over one region, my Cobalt Blue another, and my Convict pair + fries the rest, and so the remaining cichlids have to make do with the open waters anyways lol. Except in this case they fight a lot more. Well more like chase each other away (no damage), but yeh.

 

[AllAlaskan]

Well thats the issue I'm facing. Most of the fish are doing fine with the decor. But my big clumsy Oscar is constantly loosing scales on driftwood and he's so aggressive when I drop food in he jumps around and almost impales himself of stuff. Greedy lol.

Funny how such "smart" fish Oscars are can be so stupid lol.