Dither fish

[ScottandFish]

Hello All,

I have a 20 gallon long that I'm planning on putting a trio of Apisto agassizii in.

I'm looking for tips from people on dither fish.

I was thinking of either stocking 5 lemon tetra or some guppies as dither fish. Thoughts?

 

[Mike Wise]

Do a search on the forum about dither fish. It's been discussed hundreds of times.

 

[Bruxism]

I use endler hybrids in most of my tanks as dither.

 

[MickeM]

If you start up with "small"/young Apisto-specimen (2-3cm) and add the Apistos in as the the last species... Boraras birgittae, Pseudoepiplatys anullatus, Sundadanio axelrodi or Pseudomugil luminatus might work.. (But then I would avoid to buy the lemon tetras!!!, ..the lemon tetras will probably chase,bite and in the end eat these small ditherfishes!?)
I have not tried these dithers with guppies... and if you are about to try it, I would suggest the small endler/wingei-guppies.. not larger ones/types!!

I always add the smallest + most "delicate" fish into the tank at first.. so they will get some time to adapt before "stronger"/more aggressive fishes are put in..!
Large /adult Apistos may get annoyed and chase small fishes to death if they are put into "their" (already established+controlled) territory !
The Pseudoepiplatys are more likely to stay at the surface of these alternatives, so you may prefer them before the others if you are going to breed the Apistos!! (And they also have got their mouth turned up, since they are prefer insects as food, so they may have more problems to chase/eat any fry!!.. Although almost all fish tend to eat smaller fishes if given the oppurtunity!!)