Danios or Rasboras as dithers

[Linus_Cello]

So Paul Loiselle was our speaker at our fish meeting last Saturday. He presented on Danios and Rasboras, and said he got in to them because they make great dithers for apistos, even better then pencil fish (which he says will hunt apisto fry). His rationale:
(1) They stay in the top third of the tank,
(2) Don't hunt/eat apisto fry
(3) Cheap
(4; the one I think is the most interesting reason) Well fed danios/rasboras will constantly scatter eggs, which are great food to condition breeding apistos.

Anyone have a recommendation on a specific danio/rasboras. Most of the threads I've seen focus on pencils as dithers.

 

[Mike Wise]

Pencilfish are amost always found in the same biotopes as aspistos, so they are a natural choice. As for Paul's comments:

1. Most pencilfish live in the upper part of the aquarium, too, particularly N. eques and N. unifasciatus.
2. Most pencils aren't fry predators and don't actually behave as schooling fish, which tend to act in unison and overwhelm a brooding apisto female.
3. Yes, most commercially available danios and rasboras are cheaper than pencils because they are easier to reproduce in captivity and produce more eggs/fry.
4. Well fed pencil also breed and lay eggs in the tank, just not as many. I often find pencil fry in my apisto breeding tanks.

One advantage I find with Pencilfish is that they come from water values the same as apistos, especially some of the blackwater apisto species. Pencils are better adapted to living in such conditions. I see no real problem with the dwarf rasbora (Boraras) species, but find the smaller Danio species, like Zebra Danios, a bit manic in their schooling activities. It seems to disturb apistos and I've seen apistos hide more in a tank with danios. Being schooling fish, they also 'might' join in a group attack on newly freeswimming fry. Personally, I just like Pencils more. All I can say is try the rasboras and danios in your tank and comprare.

 

[ErtyJr]

I use hatchetfish and celestial pearl danios as my dithers. Here is a quick pic I snapped of my male playing with them. He likes to go up top and flare at them occasionally!

I love my stocking selection for this tank. Everything gets along so well. I will say I believe my male has eaten 2 celestial pearl danios though. But I believe that has passed now and he is done. Or so I hope.

 

[Ttw]

I've used harlequin rasboras as dithers for years. Haven't had any problems with them.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Brevibora dorsiocellata would be fine, they are shoaling but pretty small and they like warm acid water <http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/brevibora-dorsiocellata/>.

I don't think it is only Rasboras and Danios that spawn continuously, I think most Tetras and Pencil fish also spawn pretty freely if you feed small live food to your cichlids, it is just most people don't notice it happening (often they spawn early in the morning)

I've kept Threadfin Rainbows, Dwarf Pencil fish, Norman's Lamp-eye, Copella arnoldii, Epiplatys annulatus and Black-Neon Tetra as dithers, and they have all definitely spawned in the tank with the cichlids present. I've had fry survive in the tank with both Killifish (in fact Norman's Lamp-eye numbers can easily get out of hand), and Copella, and I've also had fry from Corydoras hastatus and C. pygmaeus appear when they were in the tank with a pair of Dicrossus maculatus.

I've never seen Marbled Hatchets spawn, or any evidence of them spawning, but they are in a tank in the lab. so may have spawned early in the morning when I wasn't there.

cheers Darrel

 

[tom prakash]

I just went for some harlequins, the changes in the tank are nuts. The evil male pencilfish has stopped attacking the threadfin female. The threadfin male is shoaling with the harlequins and showing off to them. Calm reigns.