Your experiences with dither fish

[SardineRN]

What odd choices of dither fish have you tried? How did it work out?

Yesterday I bought three beautiful, juvenile marbled angelfish--at Meijer of all places--to increase the size of my small angel gang and hopefully decrease aggression. The new angels are about half dollar sized and healthy looking. When I introduced them to my current quarantine tank, a lightly planted and snailed 29g THEY FREAKED THE HECK OUT! They were terrified of me, blood worms, flake food, light, darkness, gravel, plants, snails and existence, in general. I decided to reassess in the morning and possibly employ the dither fish strategy I saw in the recent Coop video.

My little grocery store angelfish had not improved by morning and still would not eat the very scary, high quality food stuffs I tried to feed. Enter: the molly fry gang. I added four 1/2 inch black molly fry--too big to be eaten. They have all the confidence and general boisterousness of their adult counterparts on a much smaller scale. It worked. Within a few hours the angelfish were moving with confidence in the tank, even when I approached. When I threw some Fluval Bug Bites in the tank they greeted the food with the kind of piranha-like enthusiasm I've come to expect from angels. Now they have taken up the angelfish hobby of repeatedly testing all flotsam to see if it's edible.

If I were a better photographer I could show you how beautiful my new angels are. It's truly a test of will not to go back and buy up the lot.

[FrozenFins]

I have cardinal tetras with my angelfish.

[toothgrinder]

I have khuli loaches that do double time by keeping the bottom clean, and, most of the time they are swimming around the tank like crazy, ‘dithering’. It’s very funny when two angels are testing eachother and a khuli interrupts by slapping into ones face. The confusion from the angel is palpable when it happens.

[SardineRN]

9 hours ago, toothgrinder said:

I have khuli loaches that do double time by keeping the bottom clean, and, most of the time they are swimming around the tank like crazy, ‘dithering’. It’s very funny when two angels are testing eachother and a khuli interrupts by slapping into ones face. The confusion from the angel is palpable when it happens.

Love the Kuhlis! Loaches are so much fun. I have yoyos and clowns with my adult angels. 

[Colu]

 Have x-ray tetra as dither fish for my bristlenose

[Fish Folk]

We added a small school of Brilliant Rasboras to a 20 gal long with a breeding pari of Kribensis to get them out from hiding. Worked like a charm! Those Kribs raised two batches of fry, and never bothered the rasboras. 

Got a small school of neon tetras to help bring some Apistogramma bitaeniata we were trying to spawn out of hiding. Worked well -- got the apistos out, and really happy. But when the apistos spawned and started to escort fry around the tank, the Cardinals turned into sharks and ate the fry. So we tried a school of young coral red pencil fish instead . . . but they just hated our water, and the whole school died off. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Fish Folk

[shkote]

I use Dwarf Neon Rainbows as dithers in my 75 gallon. They are quick and feisty and I've never had any nipping issues with them. I've been so pleased with them, I decided to make some more 😄

I have a timid and shy Firemouth in a tank with a group of Black Skirt Tetras. He seems to enjoy their presence enough to occasionally let them in his hiding spots without bothering them, but they seem far more aggressive than he does. 

My oddest current dither is a small group of Platies in with a shy young Blood Parrot. They have really brought him out of hiding.  He's constantly following them and curious to see what they're doing. I tried Glowlight tetras (fully grown and pretty robust) with my Convict hybrid, but it didn't end well. Everyone made it out alive, but I now have 3 one-eyed tetras in a school of 25. 😬

[SardineRN]

5 hours ago, Lynze said:

I use Dwarf Neon Rainbows as dithers in my 75 gallon. They are quick and feisty and I've never had any nipping issues with them. I've been so pleased with them, I decided to make some more 😄

I have a timid and shy Firemouth in a tank with a group of Black Skirt Tetras. He seems to enjoy their presence enough to occasionally let them in his hiding spots without bothering them, but they seem far more aggressive than he does. 

My oddest current dither is a small group of Platies in with a shy young Blood Parrot. They have really brought him out of hiding.  He's constantly following them and curious to see what they're doing. I tried Glowlight tetras (fully grown and pretty robust) with my Convict hybrid, but it didn't end well. Everyone made it out alive, but I now have 3 one-eyed tetras in a school of 25. 😬

"It didn't end well" seems to be how most convict stories go 😃

[Dawn T]

7 minutes ago, SardineRN said:

"It didn't end well" seems to be how most convict stories go 😃

Tell me about it!

My first time with convicts, I had a pair in a community tank. They did great with everything they shared the tank with, until they decided to spawn. Almost everyone stayed at the far end of the tank from them. They were in a 125 g so that wasn't difficult. The other occupants were 2 pairs of angels, various swordtails, a female red-tailed black shark, 5 bronze cories, a school of tiger barbs, and a bunch of zebra danios. Since they were near one end, and the others had plenty of room toward the other end, it was fine. Then one of the pairs of angelfish decided to set up a spawning spot right next to the convict's spawn spot (between the convicts and the end glass even). Before I could set up a tank to separate them, the male convict had killed the male angel then died of his wounds in a matter of hours. Argh! Never had another problem with that tank. The female never caused a problem, and she and the remaining angels got along fine.

Fast forward a bunch of years - I decided to get a convict again (no angels this time, so I thought it'd be safe). He went into a planted 29g tank with an established population of 15 tiger barbs. Those promptly began disappearing, then I started finding partially consumed bodies. What the heck?!? I caught him in the act one day of killing a tiger barb and finally isolated him. No more fatalities. I named him Jeffrey (Dahmer) and kept him in his own tank for the rest of his life. I haven't gotten another one.

I watched one of Cory's videos not too long ago where he noted that convicts aren't called that simply because of their stripes, and my thought instantly was, "Tell me about it!" LOL I know it's a limited pool to draw from, but in my experience the male convict cichlids are the most aggressive. I'd love to hear if other convict owners have noticed the same.