To Dither or Not to Dither?

[dcallen]

Hi,

I was wondering what everyone thinks about adding dither fish. I have a 70 gallon tank with mostly African Peacocks and was wondering if this would be a good idea or not, and if so what's the best fish to use?


Thanks,

 

[scholar]

No dither. they just crowd the tank!

 

[Sum-X]

What sort of dithers are you thinking?

 

[sunnygirl]

i just put in some tiger barbs in my tank, and they've made a world of difference. all of the cichlids now come out of their caves and swim closer to the suface, and are alot more active. some thing funny happened yesterday, though. the bulb in my hood started burning out, so it was flickering kinda like lightning. anyway, they're all going crazy, displaying, and defending territories. maybe i'll get some fry outta this!

 

[Sum-X]

thats great!

 

[JSchmidt]

Personally, I don't like adding fish to a tank that don't come from the same waters as the main display fish. One of the interesting thing about keeping fish is learning about their behavior. Keeping other fish with them (e.g., barbs with mbuna) is not something I care to do. I'd rather keep a more-or-less true to nature mbuna habitat and see what these fish are really like.

Jim

 

[Tightdog1]

Well it depends on if you need dithers, do you fish hide a lot or are they very active? bkuz if they are active you wouldnt need dithers anyway.

The dithers i use are giant danios. they work great except 1 of my pacus gobbled up one of the smaller 1s. but nbow they seem to be fine.

 

[DarthV]

Dithers are fish used to get a shy/skittish fish to come out of hiding and feel more safe. I think you're talking more of target fish...ones that are there to take the brunt of any aggression between your real fish ?

 

[stoopid]

My tetra serve to pull the Botia into view.

I can't imagine a tank without dither fish.