torusle wrote:Otocinclus catfish don't like stress, so if your cat is currently not felling well pulling him out his hide-out is exactly the thing not to do. You just make things worse, much worse.
I rarely ever pull him out. I mainly just do it if I feel that it's necessary and he isn't doing well and I should check up on him so that he isn't dead.
catfishchaos wrote:Water quality/Illness/Tank maturity: less likely but not to be ignored. the tank sounds pretty new and Otocinclus vittatus don't like new, or change... stable and mature tanks have always been the best option for them and if put in tank where the water is suboptimal can really stress them out. Fish often hide when ill (not that all fish that do so are ill, catfish are pretty cryptic but if the behaviour changes it can be an indicator. It could also just mean your tank didn't have enough algae (back to the maturity) and he has simply run out of food which is a pretty good reason to hide especially if its making him weaker an in its mind more vulnerable to predation.
When I first brought him home, he really loved the place and showed no signs of illness or stress. Also, I didn't get him right away like my mollies. I got him a bit after, the same time I got my neons. He loved exploring, and when he eventually explored into the cave he fell in love with the place.
Also, I put in a thick slice of cucumber outside of the cave and I'm hoping he'll get to it sometime.
catfishchaos wrote:Mollies more so than neons but both can still create a lot of movement in a tank and that can be scary for the little sucker ( ;) ) not to mention human traffic. If the tank is in a hallway or room that you frequent and move around in he could just be trying to hide from the massive monkey that for some reason hasn't eaten him yet. Noise pollution is not a silent killer by any means but vibrations ( bass in particular but all noise) is not as pleasant underwater. Maybe you like to crank up your music or turn up the volume on an action movie, maybe the filter is rattling against the side of the tank or maybe you simply live in a city and have the lovely sounds of rush hour. Try to limit noise where you can (again rush hours is an example of something out of your control) and see if this changes anything.
My tank is currently in the corner of my room on the side I don't really go to much, except for feeding them or maybe getting something over there. As for vibrations, he's VERY sensitive to that. I've noticed that when I walk over to the tank when he's out, he'll swim crazily even though I barely shook the floor. So yeah, he's pretty much afraid of his own shadow.
The mollies and neons never really bother him with their movement. My mollies darted around a lot when I first got them but now they're pretty chill. As for my neons, they're chill too. All of them usually stick together or near eachother. They only ever swim around crazily if they see me or someone else over by the tank, since they want their food.
Also, I live in a pretty small town, so no rush hour or anything like that. However, my room IS downstairs, with the living room and kitchen upstairs (weird, right?) and you can hear pretty much EVERYTHING going on in my house from my room. People walking around upstairs causes some commotion sometimes.
As for the lighting of my tank, my fish don't really seem to mind the light, but I still try my best to make it not so bright on them. At night I usually dim it down so they can settle down to sleep and everything.
Pictures!:
I love when they swim up to me when I walk over there to feed them, haha. They're absolute pigs! They're also a bit spoiled too; they always think they're getting food if you walk up to the tank. 
