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more fish (dithering)?
- Thread starter doczahi
- Start date
- Messages
- 1,164
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
Dither Fish
Hello Zahi,
The presence of dither fish in a breeding tank is a tried and true technique to induce dwarf cichlids to spawn. Their presence seems to cause the breeding pair to feel more secure, offers them a means of diffusing aggression and gives them an "intruder" from which they can defend a breeding territory. Many dwarf cichlids encounter small dither fish in the wild, so including them in aquaria is generally recommended. Some of the more common ones include small tetras, pencil fish (Nannostomus spp.) and hatchet fish. Ted Judy here in the forum even uses platies (Xiphophorus spp.) with success.
All the best,
Randall Kohn
Hello Zahi,
The presence of dither fish in a breeding tank is a tried and true technique to induce dwarf cichlids to spawn. Their presence seems to cause the breeding pair to feel more secure, offers them a means of diffusing aggression and gives them an "intruder" from which they can defend a breeding territory. Many dwarf cichlids encounter small dither fish in the wild, so including them in aquaria is generally recommended. Some of the more common ones include small tetras, pencil fish (Nannostomus spp.) and hatchet fish. Ted Judy here in the forum even uses platies (Xiphophorus spp.) with success.
All the best,
Randall Kohn
Thank you for your answer.
I guess I will add a dither fish tommorow.
As I can see the female is yellow and acting as ready for spawnnin, but the male is not interested. This couple spawned in my community aquarium two weeks ago.
I guess a pencil fish will do.
Thanks
Zahi
I guess I will add a dither fish tommorow.
As I can see the female is yellow and acting as ready for spawnnin, but the male is not interested. This couple spawned in my community aquarium two weeks ago.
I guess a pencil fish will do.
Thanks
Zahi
- Messages
- 196
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
Because of their extravagant tails, guppies may have trouble swimming fast enough to avoid the attacks of apisto parents, and their water preferences are typically different from that of most apistos. Pencilfish are great dithers, but don't just get one or it will in all likelihood end up hiding as much as the apistos. Get a shoal of at least five individuals.
guppy's, what a great idea!
i have never before bothered with dither fish in my apisto tanks as my previous fish never needed any encouragement to spawn.
but with my new aggies that i got a few months ago things were different, they spawned a couple of times but never got further than that, they seemed a lot more nervous than id seen before in apistos, probably something to do with them being positioned in the kitchen where i am alway walking passed the tank
so i thought i'd try some dither fish to try to get them to feel more secure.
about a month ago i bought a group of five lampeye killifish, but i think they were slightly too small and i think they might have ended up on the menu of my male aggie, they have slowly disappeared one by one, now i only have one left - the biggest one
do you think its possible for aggies to eat other small fish? im convinced they have!
so a couple of weeks ago i thought id try something else for a dither fish
so i got a trio of lyre tail guppy's because id read someone else on here uses them
i have never kept them before because of the overbreeding of them in the past has left them weak and not very nice looking
but these looked ok to me, and are apparantly from a local breeder so hopefully wont just mysteriously die after a few months like guppy's would do in the past
i obviously avoided the ones with red coloured tails as i am keeping them with aggies and they seem more than capable of avoiding the aggies
...and the arguement of guppy's only thriving in water conditions different to that of apisto's i think is wrong, i have read that guppy's are now found in water in the wild of varying parameters. i think originally they were naturally found in slightly alkaline water of moderate hardness, but they have also been used to control the numbers of water larvae (spelling?) insects in some countries and can be found in the wild in considerably different water conditions including mildly soft acidic water. so as long as they are acclimatised properly i think there should be no probs keeping them with apistos, hopefully hehe
the aggies already seem to swim in the open a lot more, fingers crossed and i might be a daddy soon
i have never before bothered with dither fish in my apisto tanks as my previous fish never needed any encouragement to spawn.
but with my new aggies that i got a few months ago things were different, they spawned a couple of times but never got further than that, they seemed a lot more nervous than id seen before in apistos, probably something to do with them being positioned in the kitchen where i am alway walking passed the tank
so i thought i'd try some dither fish to try to get them to feel more secure.
about a month ago i bought a group of five lampeye killifish, but i think they were slightly too small and i think they might have ended up on the menu of my male aggie, they have slowly disappeared one by one, now i only have one left - the biggest one
do you think its possible for aggies to eat other small fish? im convinced they have!
so a couple of weeks ago i thought id try something else for a dither fish
so i got a trio of lyre tail guppy's because id read someone else on here uses them
i have never kept them before because of the overbreeding of them in the past has left them weak and not very nice looking
but these looked ok to me, and are apparantly from a local breeder so hopefully wont just mysteriously die after a few months like guppy's would do in the past
i obviously avoided the ones with red coloured tails as i am keeping them with aggies and they seem more than capable of avoiding the aggies
...and the arguement of guppy's only thriving in water conditions different to that of apisto's i think is wrong, i have read that guppy's are now found in water in the wild of varying parameters. i think originally they were naturally found in slightly alkaline water of moderate hardness, but they have also been used to control the numbers of water larvae (spelling?) insects in some countries and can be found in the wild in considerably different water conditions including mildly soft acidic water. so as long as they are acclimatised properly i think there should be no probs keeping them with apistos, hopefully hehe
the aggies already seem to swim in the open a lot more, fingers crossed and i might be a daddy soon
- Messages
- 196
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
That wasn't my argument at all--I wrote that their preferences are typically different from those of soft-water apistos. Wild guppies have been discovered in waters that range from hard and alkaline to soft and acidic, but the latter represent an extreme rarity in the hobby today. Most in circulation are tank or farm-bred specimens raised in harder conditions, many from Asia, where they may be raised in semi-brackish water.skwelch said:
- Messages
- 196
- Location
- Portland, Oregon, USA
"Thrive" is not a word I'm comfortable using, mainly because it's such a nebulous term and is defined differently by people. Some people think their fish are thriving if they've stayed alive for three months in their tanks, while others want them to live for years and must witness breeding behavior in their fish (which is not all that much of an accomplishment when it comes to guppies! ). Certainly I think they can do well. Short-tailed guppies aren't the first fish I think of as being ideal dither fish, but in some respects that's in the eye of the keeper.
). Certainly I think they can do well. Short-tailed guppies aren't the first fish I think of as being ideal dither fish, but in some respects that's in the eye of the keeper.Similar threads
