# Open Tank vs Tank With Hiding Spots



## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

I've seen a lot of tanks that have lots of hiding spots and ones with just rocks and virtually no spots to hide, I'm curious about this because when I got into cichlids a year ago I was told there should be sufficient hiding spots but this creates territories in the tank which the fish guard(in my tank at least). I wouldn't mind removing the fake plants and logs in my tank and creating a more open effect.

I guess my question is would my fish just start fighting or would they swim around with less aggression because they've lost most of their territories?

My current tank is like this:

75 Gallon
Male: Rock Kribensis / Flavus / Demasoni / Acei / Red Tail Shark / Convict (Rescue fish)
Female: 3 Electric Yellow Labs / 2 Yellow Labs / Msobo Deep / Acei / Demasoni

and I can be viewed as "My 1st Cichlid Tank" under my tanks


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## coenb (Mar 24, 2013)

Depends on the fish in the tank. In your case I would put in some rocks (look at some pics were your fish are in "the wild")


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

I think next water change I'll make it a rock set up for a week to see how it's like since there's not much input here ...and at the very least clean all my fake log/plants haha


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## The Cichlid Guy (Oct 18, 2014)

What's your current setup? Just the fake logs and plants?


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

This is the current set up. I'd keep the green plant in the far left and the red plant over there two and then work something out with the rocks that are left. I'd remove the logs and the rest of the plants. If I noticed too much aggression I'd just put everything back after a cleaning I suppose.


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## RobsFishTank (Nov 11, 2014)

I've seen large numbers of aggressive fish kept in a bare tank for a long time without any aggressive behavior.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

Hmm.. it'll be an interesting experiment then. I think I'll make the switch today.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

Well here's how things turned out. So far no problems on day 1 and I was around to watch most of the time! 

I wouldn't have minded some more rocks but this is all I have at the moment. Open to suggestions as well on the aquascape. :thumb:


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## Mike_G (Nov 8, 2011)

I would take the two tallest rocks and lean (not stack) the other rocks against them to create an area of crevices and cracks (not caves) at either end of the tank, leaving an open area in the middle


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