If your neon tetra is hiding, it could be due to unfamiliar surroundings, disease, stress, or loneliness. The reason could also be poor water quality and parameters, aggressive tank mates, physical trauma, a crowded tank, or simply the nature of the species.
Keep reading to find out more about each reason and what you can do to prevent your neon tetra from excessive hiding.
Why Is My Neon Tetra Hiding?
Here’s a breakdown of common reasons why your neon tetra may be hiding too much:
1. It’s Introduced to a New Environment
One of the most common situations in which a neon tetra will hide is when you introduce it to a new environment.
An unfamiliar habitat can be a major trigger for a neon tetra to feel overwhelmed and shy, so it’ll resort to hiding until it gets used to its surroundings. This is very likely to happen if the introduction is too sudden.
A slow and gradual introduction is necessary to make the fish more at ease and help prevent stress-induced hiding. Soon after, your neon tetras will feel safe enough to explore their new home.
2. It Lives in Poor Water Quality and Parameters
If the water inside the tank is somehow contaminated or of poor quality, your neon tetras may hide as a way to escape the unwanted changes.
Increased concentrations of nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia in the tank water will lower its quality and make it less hospitable for the fish. This can also happen if the water is polluted due to a lacking filtration system, insufficient water changes, overcrowding, or overfeeding.
Additionally, if the water parameters in the tank are poor, the stressed neon tetras will hide until the environment -hopefully- clears up.
Not to mention, unfavorable tank conditions will affect the activity and immunity of neon tetras. This can make them sluggish and prefer tucking themselves away to recover some energy.
3. It Lives in a Crowded Tank
If you’re keeping your neon tetra in a tank with too many fish, chances are you’ll notice the tetras hiding.
The small size of neon tetras makes it easy to overpopulate the tank. This can very well prevent them from freely swimming and exploring, which puts the tetras under stress and leads them to tuck away.
Not to mention, with too many fish around, some types are bound to demonstrate territorial behavior. A small fish like the neon tetra can’t fight for a spot out in the open, so it hides to avoid conflict.
4. It’s Sick
In many cases, it’s an illness that causes your neon tetra to hide away. The sick fish will retire to a spot away from the aquarium’s action so it can take it easy for a bit until it recovers its health.
If your neon tetra suffers from a disease, it’ll be more vulnerable to bullying and may turn into prey. Hiding helps provide security when the neon tetra can’t quickly swim to escape such situations.
5. It Lives With Aggressive Tank Mates
Neon tetras are a peaceful species, so you shouldn’t pair them with aggressive tank mates. Otherwise, you’re just offering the tetras into targets for bullying and potential predators.
In this case, your neon tetra will become stressed and frightened. They’ll go into hiding to stay safe from the lingering threat.
6. It’s Scared
If your neon tetras are scared of something, their first reaction is usually to go hide.
Various situations and stimuli can make neon tetras afraid, for example:
- If you change their tank.
- There are loud noises.
- There are bright lights.
- The water has high currents.
7. It’s Alone
Neon tetras can’t live alone because they’re schooling fish. This means their strength and vitality lie in numbers.
Neon tetras survive and thrive in large groups If you keep just one in a tank, you’d be putting it under massive stress due to loneliness and depression, forcing the fish to hide away.
In this case, the neon tetra will stop eating and fall sick until it dies. So, always make sure you have at least six neon tetras in your tank.
8. It’s Stressed or Anxious
If your neon tetra is stressed, it may slow down and go into hiding to regain a feeling of security and stability.
Unfortunately, many factors can cause stress in neon tetras, so it can be tricky to pinpoint the exact reason. These include aggressive tank mates, illness, pollutants, lack of oxygen, lack of food, crowded tanks, and adverse water conditions.
However, once you get rid of the source of the stress, your neon tetra should be back to normal.
9. It Sustained a Physical Trauma
Another reason your neon tetra could go into hiding is physical trauma.
If your fish sustains an injury due to crashing into an object in the tank or getting hit by another fish while swimming or playing, it’ll need some time away from the action zone to recover.
10. It’s in the Nature of the Species
Hiding is a natural instinct of neon tetras, which means you can’t completely prevent it from happening.
They like to take a short break from time to time to reestablish their feelings of safety and comfort inside the tank.
How to Keep Neon Tetras From Unnecessary Hiding
Here are a few tips to encourage your neon tetras to hide less:
- Introduce neon tetra to the new aquarium slowly and gradually.
- Maintain optimal water parameters as follows:
- Temperature: Between 72 and 80 degrees F.
- pH level: Between 6.8 and 7.8.
- Salinity: Minimal level
- Alkalinity: 17.8 to 35.5 ppm( 1 to 2 dKH)
- Hardness: Soft (2 to 10 dGH)
- Change the water regularly.
- Keep neon tetras in schools of no less than 6 fish.
- Provide compatible tank mates (such as guppies and mollies).
- Make sure the tank is large enough to accommodate all the fish.
- Provide adequate amounts of food.
- Allow for proper filtration.
Wrap Up
A hiding neon tetra could be experiencing unfamiliar surroundings, sickness, stress, or loneliness.
Other reasons for frequent hiding also include poor water quality and parameters, aggressive tank mates, physical trauma, a crowded tank, or simply the nature of the species.