doberman15
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello all. I haven't posted much to this. I've been relying on other answers to help me out. I've been realizing lately though that my tank hasnt been as active as it was before.
To make a long story short, the tank was originally in the living room, then was moved to another room for about a month and a half, and has since been moved back to the living room. They were very active when they were in the living room the first time, I didn't give them much attention in the other room, as they were out of the way, but I've noticed that in the past month that they've been back in the living room, they're not as energetic as in the past.
I've got 3 Cichlids (not sure what kinds, hopefully you can help ID them), two of which are about 2 inches long, and a brown one whos a big guy somewhere in the 5 inch range. I've got a rainbow shark who has claimed a little piece of decor as his property, a common pleco, and a strong surviving kuhli loach that's kept going since about a year ago when my tank had a bunch of little tropicals (mollys, platys, etc) in it.
The shark never moves, which he never has. He just protects his home, and I'm fine with that since it's not a change. The pleco does his own thing as well, and I only see the loach in the evenings for a few brief minutes before he hides again. My concern is that my once spunky Cichlids have lost a little bounce in their step. They use to roam all over the tank, now they just stay low and hide in the plants. I did a water change a couple of days ago, since it'd been a few weeks of them acting strange, and double checked my levels and everything is A-Okay.
The only changes I've had in the past month is that I added a live plant, and I changed filters to a quieter and nicer filter. I did run both filters for about a week to allow the bacteria to build up on the new filter. I'll attach pics, please tell me what the brown, blue, and yellow cichlid are, and also let me know if this hiding and inactive behavior is normal for periods of time.
I've seen in some posts that cichlids like to have a bigger group, but I'm not sure if I could comfortably keep any more in. I guess I technically have some room if I follow the 1 inch per gallon rule, but I dont want to make aggressive style fish feel crowded.
To make a long story short, the tank was originally in the living room, then was moved to another room for about a month and a half, and has since been moved back to the living room. They were very active when they were in the living room the first time, I didn't give them much attention in the other room, as they were out of the way, but I've noticed that in the past month that they've been back in the living room, they're not as energetic as in the past.
I've got 3 Cichlids (not sure what kinds, hopefully you can help ID them), two of which are about 2 inches long, and a brown one whos a big guy somewhere in the 5 inch range. I've got a rainbow shark who has claimed a little piece of decor as his property, a common pleco, and a strong surviving kuhli loach that's kept going since about a year ago when my tank had a bunch of little tropicals (mollys, platys, etc) in it.
The shark never moves, which he never has. He just protects his home, and I'm fine with that since it's not a change. The pleco does his own thing as well, and I only see the loach in the evenings for a few brief minutes before he hides again. My concern is that my once spunky Cichlids have lost a little bounce in their step. They use to roam all over the tank, now they just stay low and hide in the plants. I did a water change a couple of days ago, since it'd been a few weeks of them acting strange, and double checked my levels and everything is A-Okay.
The only changes I've had in the past month is that I added a live plant, and I changed filters to a quieter and nicer filter. I did run both filters for about a week to allow the bacteria to build up on the new filter. I'll attach pics, please tell me what the brown, blue, and yellow cichlid are, and also let me know if this hiding and inactive behavior is normal for periods of time.
I've seen in some posts that cichlids like to have a bigger group, but I'm not sure if I could comfortably keep any more in. I guess I technically have some room if I follow the 1 inch per gallon rule, but I dont want to make aggressive style fish feel crowded.
