How to stop big cichlids from hiding

I have a juvenile trimac he's about 5 inches , definitely not a pure trimac, finding pure trimac's is extremely hard these days, any way I brought him home about a month ago and since he has been hiding in the corner of the tank.he is in a 40 gallon grow up tank for now, I went back to the shop where I bought him and asked why he is hiding and they told me to remove all hiding places and he will get used to you, and then I did it but it's been about two weeks still no improvement, sometimes I watch from far away and he go's around the tank and seems fine but when I show up he hides like he has seen a ghost, any suggestions.......

 

IMO, The fish store employee provided you with erroneous information.
Dim the lights, keep the hardscape & buy a group of tough dither fish, such as Buenos Aires, or Columbian Tetras.
Sooner rather than later the Trimac will be more interactive with you, especially at feeding time.

 

I think he would be less inclined to hide if you gave him more rather than less hiding places. Then he knows he has places to retreat to if he feels the need. Plus the dither fish mentioned will likely help.

 

I have a red devil about 10" that hides whenever I have the lights in her tank on. The light cast moving shadows around the tank because of the water movement and I think the shadows scare her. Any chance this is the issue with the trimac?

 

I love blood parrotts.
I rescued a huge one(size of my hand abouts) he was in a 20 gallon,under a log sideways...freaking out...covered in brown stress spots.
I put him in my tank(135gallon) with ample hiding spots big enough to house him comfortably and after a day or two he started poking his head about and investigating, I have 2 smaller ones about as big as silver dollars and they came to him to coax him out? I dunno, I would suggest that you get 2 or 3 more of similar chiclids to roam with him...maybe that will help?
Confidence in numbers?