About my Firemouth

Question
Hi, I have had my Firemouth for about 2yrs now.
When I first got him he was always hiding. I was tired of never seeing my fish, so I decided to buy two more fishes that like to swim around the tank. I decided to get two African Chiclids. When I added them to the tank, the Firemouth came out from its hiding position and started swimming with the African Chiclids. Don't worry they were all the same size. The Firemouth would always stand its ground in any confrontations.
Its been 6 months now since introducing the African Chiclids, and the Firemouth has always been out swimming around the tank. The African Chiclids started fighting with each other, one was a clear dominator, and kept beating up on the other one, and I must say it was quite bruised up so finally I decided to get both African Chiclids out of the tank and take them back to the pet store. But I must say that the one that was beat up did not make it to the pet store. Needless to say my Firemouth went back to its hiding again after taking the other Chiclids out of the tank.
The firemouth seem to have two personalites, and the biggest one is hiding. I love the Firemouths, so I ended up buying two more smaller Firemouths and add it to the tank, but even getting the hidden areas out of the tank did not help because they would just go to one side of the tank and stay there. Can you tell me what is up with these Firemouths, and why they like to hide so much, and if there is anything better I can do ?

Answer
Hi Garfield,
  Removing hiding places definitely won't help.  In fact, it will have the opposite effect.  The more hiding places a fish has, the less likely it is to use them because it feels that if it needs to hide, there are lots of places to go.  If there is only one hiding place, a fish will pretty much stay in it all the time.

 Your tank may be too bright (too much light or sunlight on it).  Many fish prefer slighly dim tanks.  If the tank is too bright, the fish feels exposed.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>