Dither fishes for dwarf cichlids

[joe]

..... there are pencil fish in the tank as dither ....

what is meant by dither? to distract the aggressive mate?

[Fei Miao]

As long as there are sufficient cover for the female, she'll be fine, they are just behaving like apistos

Dither fish; to disperse over aggression and encourage pair bonding during spawning

[Cacatuoides]

dither fish is used to distract the male and divert his aggression from the female....presence of dither fish also makes apistos comfortable in their tank too

[joe]

ah i see i see ... won't these dither fishes be killed?

[joopsg]

Nope. Dither fish that we used for dwarf cichlids are normally fast swimmers and they are top/surface level fishes. Pencil fishes, for example, are top and mid dweller. Likewise, Apistogramma are bottom and mid fishes. Therefore, chances are the dither will swim to higher level when being chased by the cichlids. Like I kept pencil fishes with Apistogramma and the pencil fishes spawned and my Apistogramma took care of it fries!!

[CacaManiac]

well the 2 golden pencils i've got in mine are being a nuisance.. they seem to grab all the most fo the BBS and blodd worms before the cacas can get to them.. it's annoying! any other suggestions?

[genes]

Your Apistogramma. cacatuoides new to the bloodworms? If so, they will get used to it and start snatching the food too.

Or you can also scatter the worms and they will happily pick from the bottom of the tank

[CacaManiac]

They are not new to bloodworms and BBS. They just aren't fast enough for the Golden Pencils.

[genes]

Hmmm...feed more then...

I put a cube of frozen bw everyday and all the fishes come snatch and the bits and pieces will be picked up by my apistos. Occasionally, they will come to surface and snatch the food too.

I have ten hatchets, 5 clown killies, one licorice and 2 sparkling gouramis, 2 cardinals and my caca still get his share of the frozen bw... i think you should seriously consider feeding abit more to ensure your apistos get their share

[|squee|]

Someone explained to me before about how dither fish were natural emergency systems for apistos. These fish were usually the ones to detect danger the quickest, so absence of them will mean danger is nearby.

[dc88]

Keeping some dither fish in dwarf cichlid tank benefit both : the cichlid will feel more at ease and come out more often. Also dwarf cichlid get to vent their aggression to the school of dither fish then tak on with each other - hence promote better and lasting bonding, while the aggression is shared by the numbers of dither fishes (and with their fast swiming speed) so there is no real harm.
On the other hand presence of cichlid in the tank will also force the dither fish swim in closer pack, hence a better sight to the viewer.
To achieve this objective you need at least 6 dither fishes of compatible sizes (e.g. neon or young cardinal) and a reasonably sized tank.

[bay4215]

Ya...one problem I have with dither fish is also that they, being a faster swimmer, tends to get most of the food....forcing me to feed more and end up having fat fat dithers.

[Jungle-mania]

Try daphnias, seem to work well for my liquorice grouramis and black darter tetras, who are awfully shy.

[wasabi8888]

Hi all

I read that Dither fishes for your dwarf cichlids is good if you want to breed apistos...

what are dithers? some examples please

[Cacatuoides]

- to make apistos comfortable with the presence of dithers
- to train apistos protect their territory from dithers

Eg. white cloud mountain minnows, pencil fish....

[genes]

Any small community fishes can be use as dithers. The most popular being pencils because they tend to be on the top half of the tank and some believe that they have small mouths and so less prone to eating the fries. I have seen my pencils snatch the fries when the female wasen't looking.

However, do not get to big a school of dithers because they can be too overwhelming for the apistos to fend of when they start preying on the eggs/fries.

[wasabi8888]

OK..

I am breeding my apistos in a 1ft cube tank... how many dithers should i keep?

what about small fishes like boraras maculatas?

[stephen chung]

my apisto not spawning
Can I use pencil fish as dither instead of dwarf pencil? Dwarf pencil fish is very expensive..I lost 2 liao,,,

[joopsg]

Well stephen, there is no restriction on what dither fish you want to use as dither. Using golden pencil is a good idea because they are more hardy than 3 lines. I used to had them in my breeding tank. Unless you apistogramma belong to the smaller build species, then i recommend you use boraras.

[stephen chung]

Well stephen, there is no restriction on what dither fish you want to use as dither. Using golden pencil is a good idea because they are more hardy than 3 lines. I used to had them in my breeding tank. Unless you apistogramma belong to the smaller build species, then i recommend you use boraras.

Thx, I bought some fish that looks like halaquin....