Dither Fish

[merlin]

I removed Silver-tipped Tetras I had in my breeding tanks as I felt they were quite aggressive even chasing the apistogrammas about. I thought about using dwarf cory`s but not sure if that`s the best plan. What would you all recommend as dither fish in a breeding tank or do you not bother.

 

[leafish]

I like Danios. There is absolutely nothing to gripe about with them. That, and they're 50 cents a pop. Although, I really like celestial Danios but they're too small for my tanks - they'd become food.

 

[guits]

I have had good experiences with rocket pencilfish (Nannostomus eques) and blue neon rasbora (Sundadanio axelrodi). They stay in the upper half of the tank, don't seem to bother the fry much, and personally I think they help diffuse some of the aggression in smaller breeding tanks where you have 1 pair of apistogramma.

I removed Silver-tipped Tetras I had in my breeding tanks as I felt they were quite aggressive even chasing the apistogrammas about. I thought about using dwarf cory`s but not sure if that`s the best plan. What would you all recommend as dither fish in a breeding tank or do you not bother.

 

[leafish]

Pencilfish seem pretty great but I never see them at my LFS.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
A readily available Tetra that works as a dither is the "Black-Neon" Tetra (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi). I kept 5 of these with A. cacatuoides, which successfully raised 100's of fry in the tank. They colour up very well in soft water and are reasonably easy to breed.

cheers Darrel

 

[Walshy]

I use pencil fish. They are fast enough to get away (most of the time) but don't really bother to even look at fry. I recently picked up a heap of tube-mouthed pencil fish. Funny Looking buggers and their mouth is so small that even if they wanted to eat fry I doubt they could. They also provide more movement in the tank as the apistos love to hide which gives u something to watch when ur waiting for ur apistos to show their face. $5 each. U would probably have to order them in. Not many stores carry them unless they have an apisto fanatic working there.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

tube-mouthed pencil fish. Funny Looking buggers and their mouth is so small that even if they wanted to eat fry I doubt they could.

These are the Nannostomus eques that "guits" recommended, and are an excellent choice. Pencil fish (other than N. beckfordii) are most peoples dither of choice, but they don't tend to be widely available in the UK, at ordinary LFS or most large chains.

dwarf cory`s

I've found that C. pygmaeus and C. hastatus are fine in heavily planted tanks, they don't bother the fry and are only interested in very small food items. The Apistogramma cacatuoides pair seem to regard them in a similar way to Otocinclus, as "not really fish". I would be worried about keeping them with more aggressive Apistogramma sp. or in a tank where there wasn't a lot of vegetation for them to browse on, or rest in, away from the bottom.

I've also found that C. pygmaeus both really likes dead leaves as a browsing surface, and Banana or Micro worms as food, which would presumably make them competitors for food items that could be eaten by very small fry.

I wouldn't use C. habrosus as they are more bottom orientated, and I would worry about all of the dwarf Cories more than Black Neons as they are quite sensitive fish.

This is a very old female with the Black Neons behind her, the Pristella at the front was a "rescue fish" and totally hopeless as a dither, as they are great fry hunters. Even in this tank 2 Pristella Tetras were enough to stop me getting any fry.

cheers Darrel