Dither fish for Hemichromis lifalili

[spine]

Any suggestion on dither fish for Hemichromis lifalili. My (WC) male has killed everything I put in the tank including his mate. I want to find something before I put in another female.


Thanks,
Kevin

 

[tjudy]

How large is the tank, and are there any live plants in it? I ask, because I have a similar problem with finding tank mates for some somewhat nasty H. sp. 'Guinea II'. I keep a group of six in a 110 gallon tank with plastic plants, and the only fish that they have not been able to hurt are three Distichodus affinis. This tetra only gets up to about 4 inches long, but they are tough and will eat any plant. You could probably use other Distichodus sp., but most get really large and are meaner than the cichlids.

If you tank is smaller than 40 gallons I do not know if there is a good dither that the male will not kill, especially if the pair is spawning. The dithers need space to get away. Yuo can add structure to the tank to help out, but that will give the cichlids even more places to hide.

 

[retro_gk]

Fish that stick almost exclusively to the top 1/3rd of the tank work very well with ultra aggressive cichlids, IME.

If you're not too concerned with maintaining geographic accuracy; giant danios, large rasboras and silver dollars are all possible options.

 

[ed seeley]

I used a shoal of 8 Congo Tetras with a pair of particularly aggresive Benitochromis finleyi 'Mungo'. Well they were aggressive when they weren't hiding!

 

[spine]

Thanks for all the feedback. My tank is a 50 gal. breeder with lots of plants. Do you think removing the plants will help or should I move the fish to a larger tank?




Kevin

 

[Randall]

Suitable dithers for Hemichromis spp.

Hello Kevin,

Any partial list of suitable dithers for Hemichromis lifalili would have to include Boulengerochromis microlepis, alligator gar, mud skippers (they can jump), and snapping turtles. Okay, okay, in smaller aquaria (</= 55 gallons, sexually active H. lifalili will likely kill any dither fish present. For this reason, if you want to introduce dithers, aquaria >/=75 gallons may prove more successful. I experience success with a breeding pair of H. stellifer in a 55-gallon tank using six mid-sized barbs as dithers, but the tank is very densely planted, and the shoaling barbs are very quick. The downside to this arrangement is that the barbs tend to slowly pick off fry.

Rather than introduce one female to your male H. lifalili, why not introduce two or three females and allow a pair to form naturally? This way you are assured of a compatible pair. Once a pair bond has formed, however, please be prepared to removed the unpaired female(s).

Good luck!

Randall Kohn