Fish are driving me crazy!

[GodFan]

Ok I have a 25 gallon nano (nano fish). I finally got the tank looking good but now my fish are acting funny and hiding! I checked water parameters-good. Temperature-good. Did a large water change in case of pollution. I leave the blinds in my room shut in case the morning light is stressful (even though I have plants by the window that need that light). I am running out of ideas.
I can tell you this. I turn the light on sporadically. Never before 12 but from there it is just whenever I feel like it. Not sure if that affects fish. My ember tetras hide constantly! They are never out! And one of my cories swims sideways. I cant find anything wrong with him either.
I have done some rescaping and changing plants but the embers have been hiding since before I did most of it.
Stocking:
10x ember tetras
6x habrosous cories
3x otto
1x dwarf cray
1x scarlet badis
So as you can see there isnt an aggression problem except maybe the cray but he cant catch anybody. Please help me figure this out! I am thinking about trying to find some dither fish.

While you are reading I have a stocking question. If I add 3 more badiss and 10 kerri blue emperor tetras that would be fine right?

 

[tamtam]

It doesn't sound like the issue but I know when I had rearranged my tank I had a lot of hiding for about a week. Eventually everyone went back to normal.

The only thing I can think of, and I'm not sure it would even apply, is that I know some nano fish are very timid. I know I've often read that Celestial Pearl Danios are very shy and do best in a species only tank, otherwise they hide often. May not apply to your embers but might be worth looking into.

Are the embers and the 2 cory the only ones acting weird?

 

[GodFan]

It doesn't sound like the issue but I know when I had rearranged my tank I had a lot of hiding for about a week. Eventually everyone went back to normal.

The only thing I can think of, and I'm not sure it would even apply, is that I know some nano fish are very timid. I know I've often read that Celestial Pearl Danios are very shy and do best in a species only tank, otherwise they hide often. May not apply to your embers but might be worth looking into.

Are the embers and the 2 cory the only ones acting weird?

Yea they are the only ones. The scarlet badis is a juvie new from the petstore and it acts more normal. And it was in a sick tank!

 

[librarygirl]

Have they been always in there with the cray and were they acting fine before with him or never? I'd suspect the fish are afraid of the cray and are hiding to protect themselves; even if they cray might be too slow to catch them the fish will see it as a predator and hide. Just my guess. I have embers and they're all over the place.

 

[GodFan]

Have they been always in there with the cray and were they acting fine before with him or never? I'd suspect the fish are afraid of the cray and are hiding to protect themselves; even if they cray might be too slow to catch them the fish will see it as a predator and hide. Just my guess. I have embers and they're all over the place.

At one point they were acting normal. They hide near the bottom of the tank though and seem to hide from me when I walk in a room. I did take their big bushy wisteria out but I put stem plants in. I also feed them right before lights out. Is that a mistake?

 

[bud29]

My fish like bushy plants-it makes them feel safer. My Bolivian Ram is kind of shy and whenever he comes to the front of the tank he always stays by my Java Moss. Also, I had a problem with my tetras hiding. I densely planted an area of my tank and BAM! They were out again.

 

[GodFan]

What do you consider dense? I have some stem plants but the "forest" hasnt really grown in yet.

 

[Wroberson]

When we move things around in the aquarium after the contents have been in the same place for a while, the fish have to go through adjustment. The normal swimming patterns get changed. They also have to work out new territories, and sleeping areas. It's real chaos for them.

 

[GodFan]

ok well hopefully thats all...... they also rest on the bottom sometimes......