Blood parrots scared?

[TeamTIV02]

Hi,

I have 2 blood parrot cichlids that do nothing but hide in their cave. Is there a way I can get them to come out of hiding and swim around and just be normal fish. Occasionally they turn a pale orange color. It's not the water. pH is 7.6, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all 0. I think it's because they are nervous. I just put them in a new 60 gallon tank a couple of weeks ago. But when they were in the old tank (for about 5 months) they still ran when anything came near the tank. They live with a gourmai and a pictus catfish.


Is there any training or things I could to go get them to come out.


Thanks!!

 

[rocksor]

Buy some dithers like giant danios, You will want at least a school of 5.

You tank is not cycled, I suggest you read up on how to cycle a fish tank prior to buying the danios.

 

[Tuckerp]

I had a pair of firemouth that I never saw... Was told to try giant danios as dither fish and it worked great. It only took an hour or two for the firemouth pair to come out of the rocks and they never looked back.

I would consider the giant danios to be as messy as goldfish or larger SA cichlids... So to add 5 (which is what I did) is adding quite a lot of mess to the tank.

 

[TeamTIV02]

@rocksor, my tank is cycled. I spent 2.5 months cycling that tank. You can read that on one of my other threads (sorry if I sounded mean). Even in the old tank the nitrites and nitrates were 0 and I had that tank for over 2 years.
I had planned on buying some mollies and or platies. Do you think that could work as well?