# Africans hide all the time



## cando (Mar 1, 2010)

I am a newbie to African Cichlids. I have had 5 Africans and an upside down catfish for about 3 months in a 47 gallon tank. I have a lot of rocks and the africans hide all the time and only come out to eat. Even then they scare back to their hiding places when I approach the tank. Do I have too many hiding places for a small number of fish. Should I add more. The problem with that is in the past one or some of them kill new comers after a few days. Thanks


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

cando said:


> I am a newbie to African Cichlids. I have had 5 Africans and an upside down catfish for about 3 months in a 47 gallon tank. I have a lot of rocks and the africans hide all the time and only come out to eat. Even then they scare back to their hiding places when I approach the tank. Do I have too many hiding places for a small number of fish. Should I add more. The problem with that is in the past one or some of them kill new comers after a few days. Thanks


I think you probably do not have enough fish for them to feel comfortable. I used to have 5 mainganos in with all the fish in my 55g (listed in my sig). They and the rest of my fish were always active and never really hiding in the rocks. As soon as I approached the tank, they'd all be swimming near the surface waiting to compete for food (even if I just fed them 2 minutes earlier!).

Well, the mainganos became a little too much for the tank and I didn't have the right m:f ratio, so I moved them into there very own 4' 30g tank until they could be rehomed. The fish spent about a week there, and hid the entire time. They wouldn't even come out to eat if I was in the room - I'd have to drop a few pellets in, then I'd leave the room and come back a little while later and the pellets would be gone.

I don't think it has anything to do with the number of hiding spots either. I only had a few rocks in the maingano tank, and the few that were unable to claim a rock hid near the heater, or right up next to the glass by the bottom trim where they *thought* they couldn't be seen hehe.

Regarding your catfish, assuming its a syno multi or lucipinnis, they like to be in groups of at least 5 and will be a lot more active then. My lucipinnis/petricola pace the tank constantly. some even swim laps up the back of the tank, upside down across the top and down the front glass, then back across the substrate and up the back of the tank starting the loop all over again. I've seen one particular catfish do this for not hours, but days! For your cichlids, it depends on your tank dimensions and the species you already have as to what your next move should be. I'm guessing your tank is only 3' length, and there is only so much you can do with a tank that size for africans, so I would not just run out and buy more fish without a little more info and research first. Rest assured, though, that in a properly sized, properly stocked tank, africans (especially mbuna) are anything but shy.


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

Maybe they just aren't used to you yet or there isn't enough going on around the tank??

I know I have a little 4 year old girl and she's always around the tank so they don't mind people moving around the tank and they stay out all the time. Now when someone new comes in and walks up to the tank they go and hide, but for me and my little girl they stay out all the time.


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## ilikemyusername (Mar 1, 2010)

My Mbuna have days that they just feel like hiding. They did a lot of hiding when I first setup the tank, probably for the first 4 weeks or so.


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## greggb (Feb 4, 2010)

Interesting observations. I'm new to cichlids as well and have very limited experience, but I can concur with the theory that it has to do with the number of fish. I currently have 7 small Malawi cichlids in my 55 gallon tank (3 peacocks and 4 yellow labs). They tend to hide a lot in the stacked flat rocks along the back wall, though they do come out for food quite readily and definitely associate me with food.

This could also be the instinct of younger fish, who in the wild are probably trying to avoid predators and larger, more dominant conspecific fish.

Though, the 7 blue labs all 1.25" or less currently in community tank (with guppies, mollies, and platies) have gotten to be fairly sociable. When I first got them (all 1" or less) they all hid in a group behind a piece of coral. It took them 3 or 4 days to realize that the larger fish were not a threat to them and/or get used to people.

I have two bonded jewel cichlids, about 2.5", in a 29 gallon tank at my office. I haven't been spending much time in my office for the last two weeks and when I come in they really hide. When I went in to feed them today I had to sit on the other side of the corner and just barely peak my head around to watch them. They wouldn't even come out to eat until I was out of sight. They seemed to be fairly sociable when they were in my 55 gallon tank with the other Malawis (as a result of an identification error by the LFS).


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