Did I give them too many hiding places ? (fish not seen very often)

Hello,

We have recently (ie last week) populated our new cichlid tank. It is a
220 litre tank and has a custom built background, complete with loads of
"caves". See http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/Mark3/ for more details of the
tank, background, caves, etc.

Anyway, the first fish went in last Tuesday (17th Feb), twelve assorted
cichlids of the "beginners" variety !! For a couple of days, they swam
around fairly visible, exploring the caves but not really using them too
much. On Thursday, I dropped a whole pile of Java Moss in the tank,
mainly to make it look nicer. My hope was that the moss would be able to
grow faster than the fish could eat it.

I don't know if there was any connection, but the fish hardly came out
after that. They seem to spend most of their time hiding under the rocks
and moss, or in the caves in the background. A few seem to have a
favourite cave, but often they all just pile into the two lowest ones
(back corner of the tank). Even when they are swimming around, as soon
as you go near the tank they all disappear.

So, did I provide too much cover for them ? Are they going to come out
more when they are more settled, or is it feeding time only ? I intend
to put more fish in as I was advised that this tank can house about
another twelve. Will this help ?

Any comments welcome.

--
Alan Silver
PSG Fish Tanks - http://fish.alansilver.co.uk/