Unpleasantries of playing Hide and Seek

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Chrisplosion;4339521; said:
So the fish have been in the tank for 6 months? In that amount of time your parrot should have grown at least an inch to two inches and the dempsey should have grown at least 3 inches. I noticed my first parrot and my dempsey (no longer have her) would hide a lot when I had them in my 20 gallon. Then I upgraded to a 55 gallon and got 2 more parrots and they stopped hiding. When the dempsey hit 4 inches she stopped hiding as well but I gave her away. Maybe adding some dither fish would help, get some mothion going in the tank.
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the jack dempsey and convict have probably grown about 1.5" since I got them. the blood parrot hasn't grown so much and neither has the firemouth for some reason...I hear the firemouth like eating floating foods rather than sinking foods. should I switch to a floating pellet diet for all of them?
 
thedarkone;4339563; said:
A dither is a schooling fish that is free swimming. Like Tetras, barbs, silver dollars, danios, and tons of other fish.

The way it works is you get a shoal (4-5) to a school (5 or more) of these fish for your tank and they swim around all day long. Your cichlids see the dithers swimming around and not getting eaten or attacked and they realize that it is safe and come out. I would suggest small tetras or danios for your tank, both barbs and Silver dollars will get way to big for your current tank.
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which one of the two swim faster? tetras or danios? every blue moon I see my blood parrot chasing my firemouth around and they sure do put on a good race.
 
ok so I bought five red serpae tetras and removed all the decor and put in five ceramic pots in their stead. so far they've picked up their laziness but I need to move around the pots and fill in some gaps so that they don't go behind the pots...that will defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to accomplish here lol here are a couple of pics of the tank and the tetras

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yeah im almost sure it has to do with the water parameters, especially if they havent grown much in 6months, you def need to be doing at least weekly 50% water changes, and i would get rid of that pleco they get like 18in long and shouldnt be housed in anything smaller than a 90g tank IMO, just keep the water clean and dont overfeed and you wont have algae, and also i dont mean to sound harsh but if you cant afford the tank then you really shouldnt get the fish, both dempseys and blood parrots will need at least a 55g tank, just keep the convict and firemouth and grow them nice and big they will be good in the 30g and then you can add to your school of tetras to add some activity to the tank
 
Sarah88;4341520; said:
yeah im almost sure it has to do with the water parameters, especially if they havent grown much in 6months, you def need to be doing at least weekly 50% water changes, and i would get rid of that pleco they get like 18in long and shouldnt be housed in anything smaller than a 90g tank IMO, just keep the water clean and dont overfeed and you wont have algae, and also i dont mean to sound harsh but if you cant afford the tank then you really shouldnt get the fish, both dempseys and blood parrots will need at least a 55g tank, just keep the convict and firemouth and grow them nice and big they will be good in the 30g and then you can add to your school of tetras to add some activity to the tank
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tell me about it...I know it seems like an act of selfishness trying to keep all of them in such a small tank but I'm working on trying to get myself a 55g tank by September. then maybe I can put this one up for sale or use it for breeding...plenty of small aquarium stores down here in Miami that wouldn't mind buying fish from hobby breeders if the price is right.
 
mmm well one thing that i reccommend is to do away with that big layer of gravel, those big stones trap sooooo much waste, imo barebotom and sand are the only way to go, but if you love the gravel, at least make it a very thin layer
 
My firemouths eat both sinking and floating. They might feel more comfortable with sinking though. I did something similar but with coconuts, try putting plants between them and out out a little but to make columns in between.
 
Chrisplosion;4342241; said:
My firemouths eat both sinking and floating. They might feel more comfortable with sinking though. I did something similar but with coconuts, try putting plants between them and out out a little but to make columns in between.
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you mean put plants in between each of the ceramic pots? what can I do to stuff the empty space behind and in between pots so that they don't venture back there?
 
guitardude87;4342406; said:
you mean put plants in between each of the ceramic pots? what can I do to stuff the empty space behind and in between pots so that they don't venture back there?
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Yeah thats what I meant. You could pile up the gravels, thats what I did.
 
it seems that now the cichlids are more active but only when the tank light is off...they go nuts once I turn the light on and either hide behind the pots or inside them...im going to take a water sample to s reputable aquatics dealer in the area to see if they can test it for me...but i'd like to hear the forum's input if you guys have any
 
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