Normal for new fish hiding or skittish?

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Wspanic

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
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So this is my first cichlid tank. I have a 40 gallon that is cycling with Seaclear Stability and Prime. Last reading was 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate. I put 5 yellow lab cichlids in 48 hours ago. They swam around for the first few hours but they have all been hiding ever since. Each has claimed a spot behind a rock and will not come out. If I turn the light off most will come out for a bit but then run for cover if you walk towards the tank. I do plan on adding more cichlids (demasoni) once tank is fully cycled.

Is this normal? Did I buy 5 agoraphobic fish? I see no reason to have a tank with theses beautiful colored fish if you can not see them.
 
It is normal. They will come out soon. I have never liked using chemcials for anyhting so im not sure what the seaclear stability is for. I assume it claims to make the water safe during cycling. But i would still do large water changes quite often with 5 yellow labs in a 40g.
 
So this is my first cichlid tank. I have a 40 gallon that is cycling with Seaclear Stability and Prime. Last reading was 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate. I put 5 yellow lab cichlids in 48 hours ago. They swam around for the first few hours but they have all been hiding ever since. Each has claimed a spot behind a rock and will not come out. If I turn the light off most will come out for a bit but then run for cover if you walk towards the tank. I do plan on adding more cichlids (demasoni) once tank is fully cycled.

Is this normal? Did I buy 5 agoraphobic fish? I see no reason to have a tank with theses beautiful colored fish if you can not see them.

You absolutely can not have demasoni in a tank under 55G (4ftx1ft). You just can't do it. You need to get a very large group of them for the aggression to be evenly distributed or they just kill eachother off until you only have 1 left.

Yellow labs, also, are too large (over 5" and very bulky) for a 40 gal. They need a 4 ft tank. You can get away with them in a smaller tank because they're docile, but it's still unfair to them to keep them in a smaller tank IMO.

You could instead of the labs and demasoni, get Saulosi. They will work in a 40 gal. They only get 4" and not that bulky bodied. The males look like demasoni and the females look like labs with no black on them. Good compromise IMO.

You shouldn't have added the fish while you were still reading ammonia. That's probably why they're all hiding. Other possible reasons are major hardness and pH differences between your tank and the tank they came from and malawi bloat, which makes fish skittish. If they were behaving normally at the store, though, bloat is not likely.

I'd bet it's your ammonia. Any ammonia is not fish safe. Same goes for nitrite.
 
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