Dither Fish

[Travis_Conklin]

I have a pair of Cacatuoides in which the male is extremley skittish. The female is fine, comes out for feeding and swims around the tank. The tank has lots of cover, almost completely covered in moss and several pieces of drift wood and about five caves, so I don't believe it is a lack of cover. I was wonder if any one has used fancy guppies as dither fish and what would be the pro's and con's of this. I am having a overpopulation of these guppies in some of my other tanks. I thought they may make a good dither fish and also give a nice snack to the Apisto's with there fry. What do ya'll think.

 

[Daryl]

I would do it... I have no experience with Apisto's yet, but I have kept lots of other cichlids and I would say that it should work... I don't reccommend using store bought guppies as feeders as they could introduce disease - but if you've had these guys for awhile they should be healthy and thus be ok!

 

[DH247]

Dithers are definitely a must for calming your apistos. They will become much more 'friendly' with some fish above them. I would avoid tetras if you are looking to breed them. They are very efficient predators! However, some of the rasbora species, or Nannostomus species (pencil fish) are great. They will pick off a lone fry if they can, but they can only eat smaller foods so the fry get too big to eat pretty quickly.

 

[Apistomaster]

I like using pencilfish as dithers, too.

 

[jose_vogel]

I use Nannostomus, except N. eques.

 

[apisto9809]

you can also keep Endler's, the apistos will eat their fry, but they won't eat the apistos, that is what I am hoping to do with my Venezuelan biotope, except with Trifasciata.

 

[Travis_Conklin]

Thank you for the replies, I also would like to do the Nannostomus species (pencil fish) but they don't have them very often at the LFS and when they do, I just watch them drop off one by one thru the weeks, so I do not want to subject my fish to what ever they have. The Endler's are a great idea also, I know a reputable individual which carries those so if I don't have good results with the guppies I will try them. Once again thank you for the replies.

 

[Apistomaster]

If you buy the pencils and quarantine them and feed live baby brine shrimp they will come around quickly.
Nannobrycon eques is one I do recommend. I don't recommend Nannostomus beckfordi as they are the least specialized of the pencil fish and they will eat fry.