# Mosquito/Chili Rasboras Hiding?



## solarz

I have a 16-gallon shrimp tank, and it also houses 20+ chili rasboras. It is pretty heavily planted with water wisteria. However, the rasboras keep hiding in the bottom of the tank. Sometimes they swim out to the open, but whenever I get near, they quickly dart back into hiding.

Is this behavior typical or does it indicate a water quality problem? There are no other fish in this tank, only Fire Red and Crystal Red shrimps.


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## SwimmyD

*Wish I'd seen this sooner*

LOL I know this is late - but we had the same problem. Silly things always hiding at the back of the tank and swimming behind the back of the stream of the HOB. I took to calling them "the boring boraras!" Greg removed a ton of plants, then there was a die-off of more plants. Now the boring boraras have less places to hide so we see them now. Are yours still hiding?


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## solarz

I just did a rescape of the tank, basically moved all the plants to one corner, leaving a large open area. It seems that now they actually come out into the open from time to time, but they still hide a lot.


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## SwimmyD

Ha! "boring brigittae" also works. I told Greg we should let loose one our killifish in the tank. That'll mix 'em up! Lol! What gets them excited seems to be the addition of bbs. Once they see them- they go nuts all over the tank. When they think someone is coming with bbs- they actually swim to the front of the tank. I have to admit they are pretty though. But they don't swim much. They are just sort of suspended in the water.


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## Jung

hmm, my group is the opposite, every time I approach the tank, they come to the front and get excited expecting to be fed, and they always stay at the top, only sometimes midwater and never at the bottom.

I feed them live grindal worms, maybe try that?


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## Ciddian

LOL boring...

I mine had been really shy for the longest time too, but when my tank really filled in when I had a 30 gallon they seemed to get more brave.

Do they get better with the more time you have them?


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## Fishfur

Could be the live food.. some fish just do so much better on live foods than on man made.
I have some of these too, and I don't see a whole lot of them but that's partly because I have two fry tanks hanging on the front, and a lot of wood in there, so they can hide easily enough. But everybody shows up when I feed live anything.
I got new live foods at the auction.. vinegar eels, walter and grindal worms.. so I'll have more variety than just micro and banana worms. 

I got daphnia too but I very much fear I overfed the tnak not long after I got them. There are some still alive, but not nearly as many as I started with. Oddly, the ostracods that are in that tank continue to do fine.. either they aren't as affected by low oxygen or there is some other factor that keep them going. Seem to be very hardy, though slow at reproducing.


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## pyrrolin

sometimes its the order you put fish in the tank. The more timid fish should be put in first so they get comfortable and can be the boss and put the more aggressive fish in last so they are the new guy and behave


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## Fishfur

Too true. Though that can be a bit of a problem if you're adding a new species to a tank that's already got a number of fish in it. My chilies share with some CPDs and pencil fish, none of whom are pushy or aggressive, but the chilies were the last addition. I put in 12 hoping it would give them some encouragement to be braver.


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## Ryan.Wilton

Small fish tend to be nervous... How long has the tank been set up for? Is it in a high traffic area of your house?

I had a tank of cichlids believe it or not that did this (mostly convicts, 1 oscar and a dinosaur bichir). I moved the tank into an area that had more traffic and made a point of walking by it several times a day. After a couple of weeks they started getting more brave and eventually they never hid.


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## solarz

Ryan.Wilton said:


> Small fish tend to be nervous... How long has the tank been set up for? Is it in a high traffic area of your house?
> 
> I had a tank of cichlids believe it or not that did this (mostly convicts, 1 oscar and a dinosaur bichir). I moved the tank into an area that had more traffic and made a point of walking by it several times a day. After a couple of weeks they started getting more brave and eventually they never hid.


Good idea, I'll try that. The tank is in a corner that doesn't get much traffic.


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