Timid Rummynoses

[Carphunter57]

First post and he's already rubbing it in how great his fish are...

Mine are too.

Lol. sorry didn't mean to rub it in about my fish.

Just amazed at how different our Rummies are to those described in this thread. We do have a black back ground and black substrate with loads of bogwood, roots and plants, so plenty of structure for them to feel safe amongst and sublte lighting plus a good amount of water movement. So possibly a more Rummy friendly set up.

 

[jay]

Only joking fella
Suppose fish are products of environment. But I've noticed that they can be trained pretty easily... maybenot roll over or anything, but sure with time and practice, we can all get to see our fish more.

 

[PM]

My rummies hide a lot too, though I've noticed that when I do less maintinence they gain confidence and swin aound more, but as soon as I do a WC, they'll hide for days

 

[Egmel]

Mine have become much better after 2 things. The first was to re-arrange the tank, there's now less to hide behind but a nice are which has surface cover. The second was to add a shoal of harlequin rasboras. Now the rummy noses are out and about much more. I'll agree that they still get more skittish after water changes and the like though.

 

[aaronnorth]

I am having the same problem with my 15 x Black neons at the moment
They have been constantly hiding in the back corner since i bought them (my 60l tank).

8 of them have been in since November 1st and they were out constantly. A week later I added another 7 and ever since they have been hiding? It is as though the extra numbers have made them feel more scared!

The tank has had a slight re-shuffle, and i am not prepared to add more species because it is only 60l and it would ruin it

Thanks

 

[PM]

My black neons and rummies are happy as larry now in my 54L.

They are always swimming around and 'exploring'!

I think that the key is to allow them time to fell comfortable, and have enough plants in there (I'm really not a fan of iwagumi for this reason).

Also it only takes one scared fish and the others will pick up on their behaviour. (So adding more scare ones won't help). I'm going to do some maintainence tomorrow and I know that the fish will be a bit timid for the rest of the day afterwards, but will be active the next day.

The more severe the disturbance the longer it takes for them to settle in, but when they do they are a joy!

 

[Thomas McMillan]

I agree you should give them time to settle in, they'll come out when they're ready.

I know this sounds really weird, but I find when it comes to being timid it's a bit of a balancing act with fish. Sometimes if you add a few fish, take some away, add another species (even to take out again) fish may become permanently un-timid or just for an amount of time. Kinda weird.

 

[Ejack]

Hey guys, I've a few rummynose tera's (6 of them), had them for over half a year now. But for some strange reason, and I'm not sure why, they seeme to hide all the time and hardly ever come out. Occasionally I see the odd one now and again. They're in the same tanks as my Neons tetra's who seem to be out all the time especially just before I feed them. But the rummynose I hardly ever see even during feeding time. For the first few months, they were fine and I saw them quite often, but lately they just seem to stay hidden all the time.
Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[Ed Seeley]

6 is a rather small shoal really. Try adding another 6, or more.

 

[Ejack]

Thanks for the reply Ed, appreciate it

I imagined as much do you think adding another 6 Rummynose to my tank (see below) will result in me overstocking it?

 

[Thomas McMillan]

Thanks for the reply Ed, appreciate it

I imagined as much do you think adding another 6 Rummynose to my tank (see below) will result in me overstocking it?

Not at all.

 

[Ejack]

Wow Really I kinda sided with caution originally didn't want too many fish in the tank as not to overstock.

Looks like I know where I'm going fter work today

 

[Thomas McMillan]

The way I work it out, is if you're dealing with fish such as Tetras, Rasbras etc then 1cm of fish per 1l of water.

So... (approx)

1 Platy = 5cm
1 Silvertip Tetra = 5cm
6 Rummynose Tetra = 5cm each = 30cm
6 Neon Blue Tetras = 5cm each = 30cm

= around 70cm = 70l so you've got a bit of room left yet because shrimp and snails don't make that much difference to the bioload unless in great numbers.

 

[Ejack]

Thanks Thomas

What would you consider a "great number" of shrimp? |Reason I ask are my shrimp are breeding like rabbits and obviously I don't want to have too big a population to threaten there survival.

 

[Thomas McMillan]

In the hundreds, you don't have anything to worry about unless you get too overpopulated.

 

[zed]

I got 10 rummy noses on Saturday for my 350litre corner tank. Within an hour they were shoaling beautifully around the tank. They looked so good I got another 20 today. I just hope I haven't upset the balance and stop the shoaling behaviour.