Celestial Pearl Daddyo

Quick update. I began an attempt to train the fish to come out to the front of the tank by turning off the filter and tapping a few times on the aquarium stand before putting food only in the front of the tank. I was shooting for a Pavlovian response that would entice them to come out more. I previously tried @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's advice of turning off the filter to see what happens - nothing did - but this time I waited even longer. I wanted the cory's to eat all the food so that when I turned the filter back on the current wouldn't pick up food particles and feed the fish that didn't come out. Anyway, after about 20 minutes not only did the rasboras come out, but the cory's and the scarlet badis seemed to be more adventurous too. I have a Fluval FX2 on my tank turned all the way up, so I knocked it back to half power and since then the rasboras have been coming to the front of the tank! They've also been playing in the current at the outflow. I'm holding my breath though, since every time I make changes they seem to respond well, only to go back to their old ways. However, I'm hoping I might have found some sort of a solution, and won't need to resort to dither fish at the moment. Thanks again everyone for your help!

@Odd Duck Should I add Endler's or Guppies as dither fish? And how many should I add? I'd like to add as few as possible.

Thanks for all this advice! And I know what you mean about fish stress and schooling, but I think that Emerald Eye Rasboras naturally school very tightly even when comfortable. That's why I got them and I wasn't disappointed. Really amazing little fish. And yes, a bushy fine leaved plant may be just what I need. Thanks again for your advice.

Right, I'm considering swapping out the fish. But I just fell in love with these Emerald Eye Rasboras. They're so chic: muted but with a rainbow opalescent sheen, bright blue eye and black spot on their fins. They also school so tightly and when they are not feeling shy they move so elegantly around the mountain I built for them. I'm surprised they are not more popular, but maybe their shy behavior keeps them out of some tanks? I'm going to try a combination of lower flow, dither fish, more cover and feeding only in the front of the aquarium to see if I can get them to come around over time. I'm also wondering if over the course of weeks they'll get more comfortable with me. I thought they were tank raised but now I'm thinking they might be wild caught - so maybe they need time to adjust to being in an aquarium. And thanks for the tips about photos. I fixed them.

Thanks to all of you who responded! Here are some photos of my tank. It's a mountain scape so I'm trying to get a carpet going all around it and have lots of negative space. You can see my problem, the fish have nowhere to hide, and I'm trying to keep the scape to a minimum. That said, I just put in some of the stem plants in the back of the mountain and that seemed to help a bit. The fish were coming out to the front of the tank a little last night. It's funny, everything seems to help a little - a slow ramp up, adding more rasboras, lowering the flow, floating plants, stem plants, adding corydoras as dither fish - but eventually the fish go back to their hiding. Usually they get spooked when I walk by or put my hand in the tank to clean, for example, and then won't come out for hours. Before I rescape the back of the tank and fill it with dense stem plants and completely throw off all my hard work building a wrap around mountain, I'm going to try a few guppies as dither fish. Would 3 be enough or do I need more? (Apologies: for some reason I can't rotate the photos)

I took Dean's advice from this video from the early days of the pandemic and put 6 Celestial Pearl Danios and 6 Pygmy Corydoras in my 5 gallon tank and it's worked out beautifully. At first I was concerned that it would be overstocked (I put an Amano shrimp and two Nerite snails in as well) but the fish don't really occupy the same areas of the tank and don't really interact, so feels like more than enough space. I'm even considering adding a Scarlet Badis if I ever come across one at an LGS.

Can I introduce dither fish into the tank, get the EERs comfy and coming out, and then take out the dither fish once they've warmed up? I'm wondering if anyone has tried that. And thank you AllFishNoBrakes!

Hi everyone. I have 20 Emerald Eye Rasboras in a 15 gallon cube and they almost never come out from behind a rock during the day, although they do swim around the tank when the lights are off. I started with 10 and bought 10 more to try and make them feel more comfortable, but the old inhabitants simply showed the new ones where to hide. I tried ramping up the lights more slowly and that seemed to help, but only for a few hours as I had people over to my apartment the day I tried that and I think the activity spooked them. I'm considering getting some dither fish, but would also love to hear if anyone has success with other approaches. I'd rather not put floating plants in my tank, because it's an open top tank.