Best fish for dither use while breeding

[Astrix]

Hey everyone!! so I have multiple breeding pairs of different beautiful apistogrammas here and I am wondering what everyone uses for dithers in their tanks?!? I currently have pencil fish and some very small neon tetras but am looking for other easy obtainable species that won't devour the babies!!

Species I am considering to use

green neon tetras
mosquito rasboras
ember tetras
corydora catfishes

any other suggestions?!? I'm in Canada and some species are harder to find here as well.

 

[gerald]

Black neon (H. herberaxelrodi) is a popular one. Less predatory than most tetras, and easy to find in local shops. Most Apisto breeders advise AGAINST Corydoras and most other catfish. Either they eat fry, or lose their eyes trying.

 

[Drayden Farci]

Pencilfish are great - small mouths that can't eat the fry and typically too shy to even try! Black Neons are also apparently popular, but I don't personally find them all that appealing so I've never recommended them myself. I've bred Apisto's in a community tank with Corys before, but in the end you'll probably have to move the fry unless you go with nothing but Pencilfish.

 

[Astrix]

Agh I figured as much.. If I remove the babies then I can re-trigger a spawn after 14 days so that might not be such a bad thing I am currently hunting down pencil fish but they are quite expensive where I am and need to find a good deal on them. would like to group order them

 

[Bart Hazes]

Agh I figured as much.. If I remove the babies then I can re-trigger a spawn after 14 days so that might not be such a bad thing I am currently hunting down pencil fish but they are quite expensive where I am and need to find a good deal on them. would like to group order them

N. marginatus and a few others tend to be cheap. N. mortenthaleri, N. rubrocaudatus, N. espei tend to be expensive. I have 7 or so different pencilfish and like them a lot as dithers. I also recently added one tank with Axelrodia riesei, a max 2 cm tetra, that so far seems to work well as dithers too and they are colourful but can be hard to find. Later this year I'll try out Tyttocharax, another tetra that stays small but is not common in the trade. All imported via Curtis Jerrom in Calgary who gets in a lot of interesting oddities, including apistos, corys, tetras and others. I have bred some apistos in community tanks with many fish and if they are good parents it can work well and is a lot less work than raising them by hand.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

My black neons are aggressive as heck, I wouldn't think they would be good around fry. I am surprised by that response, but that's good to hear. I had some glowlight tetras with my aggies for a while and more than one got killed for wandering close to the spawning site. Nannos are probably a good bet, expensive or not.

 

[chris1805]

My black neons are aggressive as heck, I wouldn't think they would be good around fry. I am surprised by that response, but that's good to hear. I had some glowlight tetras with my aggies for a while and more than one got killed for wandering close to the spawning site. Nannos are probably a good bet, expensive or not.

Luckily not every nannostomus is expensive i believe marginatus here are arround 1,75 euro each and the eques are about 2 euro each, same price as your average tetra for me the eques are best since they stay at the top all the time, school nicely and are probably the most funny fish i have ever seen hanging straight in the water. Oh and also important, they are extremely fast they are terrible to catch though if needed..

 

[cjerrom]

Hey everyone!! so I have multiple breeding pairs of different beautiful apistogrammas here and I am wondering what everyone uses for dithers in their tanks?!? I currently have pencil fish and some very small neon tetras but am looking for other easy obtainable species that won't devour the babies!!

Species I am considering to use

green neon tetras
mosquito rasboras
ember tetras
corydora catfishes

any other suggestions?!? I'm in Canada and some species are harder to find here as well.

Pygmy cories - hastatus, pygmaeus, and hasbrosus are some nice cories. Tetras - Hypessobrycon elachys and heterorhabdus, Axelrodi riesei, and microrasboras/rasboras are excellent - as I keep all the above with my apistos without any issues! By the way what part of Canada are you located if you would not mind sharing?

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

I prefer not to use dithers, they cause more trouble than what its worth. Keeping a rack so that pairs in the same complex can see each other is the best.

When given then opportunity, any fish will target fry. If I saw a floating chicken nugget I would not hesitate.

Dithers are only useful for shy fish in my current breeding operation.

If you want to create a tank thats for display, I would use them. If you want to max fry survival rate, no dithers.

 

[Astrix]

Pygmy cories - hastatus, pygmaeus, and hasbrosus are some nice cories. Tetras - Hypessobrycon elachys and heterorhabdus, Axelrodi riesei, and microrasboras/rasboras are excellent - as I keep all the above with my apistos without any issues! By the way what part of Canada are you located if you would not mind sharing?

I'm located on the farrrrr western coast of central Vancouver Island in BC

 

[Astrix]

so skirt tetras work? hmm LoL i am using juvenile neons and pencils currently wanting to expand my tank looks.. if they are not needed then I can always leave them out. My first time breeding SA dwarves and I have pairs with and without dithers to see what works best currently all a learning experience!! and I love it

 

[ChiefBrody]

I started out with ember tetras but eventually decided to move them. I had a caucatoides 3-way in a 20gallon and it was ideal. When I added 2 juvenile male nijsenni I lost the dominant female I assume to aggression but I didn't see it happen. Things have settled down in there now but no respawn yet. I'd like to keep additional species but unsure about cross-breeding etc. If I could have left it exclusively for the caucatoides I would have. They'd still be spawning twice a month. The tank looked great filled with fish in different stages of development.