Souperman

Thanks for the response. I did some work on the tank, moved the hardscape around, and actually had some great behavior out of the fish afterward with it exploring the whole tank, feeding, and interacting with tank mates. Unfortunately, that was only temporary as the fish is now back to hiding. Guess I just need to keep troubleshooting scaping elements until I find something it likes. Update: I may have jumped the gun on posting this. I just got done feeding the tank, and while the fish was still skittish, he was out and about with no problems. Hopefully, it stays this way. From watching his behavior, I think moving the coconut hut and pot to the opposite side of the tank is what did it and he feels safer about being out and about. I am still unsure what caused this behavior to suddenly start in the first place though.

The tank's inhabitants are a single juvenile bottlenose and ten red serpae tetras. I don't believe the fish spawned as I don't have a pair and I don't see the same behavior I am used to when caring for spawning dwarf cichlids. I have attached a picture of the tank and will work on target feeding in the future. I apologize for the abundance of algae. I am currently working on reducing that. Parameter-wise, the tank is ok now that the nitrates have been reduced.

Thanks for the tips. I don't have any prime but can pick some up if that may help. Funny enough, the lights have been off for about a week and just came back on to try to help with algae. This behavior started before that happened though. I don't know if the acara is eating. I have not seen him eat since before he started hiding, but I know he does eat what I offer to the tank and he could very well be eating while I am not watching. His overall body condition and shape seem normal which leads me to believe he is eating something. His fins seem normal from what I can tell and I have not seen any bullying either towards him or the other fish in the tank by any of the inhabitants. He may be a little more active today after the water change last night, but overall his behavior is the same.

Just checked my parameters and nitrates are higher than they should be at 80ppm. Currently working on a water change to bring that down. Other than that all parameters were normal. No new additions to the tank for over six months. Nothing of note. I did recently move back into the room with the tank, but the fish had the behavioral change before that happened. The room is really not a high-stress environment with it being unoccupied for the majority of the day at the moment.

Hello Everyone, I am making this post in the hope that someone has some input on some weird behavior my dwarf acara has recently started showing. For about the past two weeks, my dwarf acara has gone from being outgoing to hiding behind the sponge filter 95% of the time. The rest of the time it is hiding somewhere else that I have not been able to find yet. The fish does seem to show some activity when the tank is dark but always hides when the lights come on. I have had the fish for about seven months now, and before recently it acted normal. The fish looks fine, except that it is not colored up like it used to be. Any input is appreciated. The tank is a lightly planted 20-gallon with serpae tetras and a small bristlenose. The tank currently looks bad as I am fighting an algae outbreak, but water parameters are fine from what I can tell. Thanks in advance.