Décor Is Shelter First: Why Hiding Places Matter

A tank with nowhere to hide is a stressful place to live, and stress in fish shows up as illness weeks later.

Cover changes behaviour

Shy species spend far more time in open water when they know there is somewhere to retreat to. The counter-intuitive result is that adding hiding places makes you see your fish more, not less.

Break the sightlines

In a community tank, ornaments that interrupt the long view across the tank reduce chasing between territorial fish.

One per fish, roughly

For small territorial species, aim for at least as many defensible spots as you have fish that want one.