View Full Version : dither fish
hanif
02-19-2003, 10:13 AM
what would be the best type of dither fish for my 42 U.S. gallon tank which contains 2 female yellow lab cichlids and 1 male but im planning on adding a few more females and the tank also contain a red tailed black shark.
Faramir
02-19-2003, 10:29 AM
I've never needed dither fish with Mbuna. Just give them a little time to settle in.
hanif
02-19-2003, 11:04 AM
the dither fish are there to give the tank some thing extra and to add different colour so it brakes up the yellow of the labs. so that the colours of the labs dont just blure together. so does anyone have any advise on nicely coloured suitable dither fish for my tank and yellow labs.
Faramir
02-19-2003, 11:24 AM
So they're not dither fish you're after then.
Tough call. What is lively and colourful, can hold its own against Mbuna, and will be happy in highly alkaline, hard water?
Anyone think there's a species of rainbowfish that would do this? Swordtails? I'm clutching at straws to be honest.
JSchmidt
02-19-2003, 11:45 AM
They're not dithers, but I've found that keeping a few Cyrtocara moori with my labs has caused the labs to be much more visible. The moori are out most of the time, they are a nice blue color, and they really seems to draw out the labs. This arrangement also has the added benefit of allowing you to keep Malawi species together, avoiding the problems of different water preferences and the "grab bag" look of mixed tanks.
Also, note that ALL mbuna, by nature, will hide some of the time, whether there are other fish in the tank or not. That's their nature and the best you can hope to do is moderate it a bit.
HTH,
Jim
Tightdog1
02-20-2003, 12:18 AM
dont know the water parameters off hand but i have heard rainbowfish work good as they are fast swimmers and they are very colorful too. but i dont know if they like hard alkaline water and if you wanna risk spending that much $$ on a fish that may get eaten/killed.
VoodooChild
02-20-2003, 10:20 AM
I'd be worried about the rainbows straying into the labs territory. Labs aren't that aggressive, but they can pack a punch when they want to. You could shoot for giant danios. They fast enough to dodge a lab blow and are pretty colorful. Buenos Aires tetras would work well, as long as you know they're acclimated to harder water. I agree with Faramir though. Give them some time to settle in. They should come out after a bit.
I have heard of many people using tiger barbs with mbuna.