Barbs as Ditherfish

[SirMinion]

We have two rescued parrot cichlids which from the day we got them have spent 90% of the time lurking inside their hollow log or hiding among the plants.

I have recently been introduced to the concept of 'Ditherfish' as an aid to encouraging confidence in nervous fish rather than their usual role of encouraging breeding behaviour.

Pretty much everything I've read reccomends a small school of barbs as ideal ditherfish but having had previous experiance with tiger barbs as waspish, nippy creatures, I'm hesitant to add them to the currently peaceful tank.

Barbs are a family I know very little about, only having kept tigers for a short time about 15 years ago, so are there any other barbs of a similar size that are less quarelsome & aggresive, but still sufficiently confident to be effective ditherfish that I could get a small school of?

 

[ryan]

Tiger Barbs tend to give other species I bad name I have found although they are not that bad when kept in larger groups themselves. I have kept a few other species and currently keep Odessa Barb (Barbus ticto?), Golden Barbs (Barbus/Puntius semifasciolatus) and Arulius Barb (Puntius arulius). All of which are highly peaceful with other fish and have never caused me any problems. Arulius Barbs are slightly larger but develop some great colouring with age, as do the others. In a group of 5-6 they are fine, from time to time they will chase each other buts its never overly aggressive. One bonus is that they have eaten all signs of hair algae in my tank.

 

[SirMinion]

Excellent, thanks for the information.

I'm thinking of species that I've seen around here and I can only recall Rosy Barbs (other than tigers), what's your opinion on them?

 

[ryan]

They're relatively similair to the others I mentioned, I'd be surprised if a group of 5-6 caused you any problems, well worth a try.

 

[SirMinion]

Thank you!

 

[CathyG]

Just out of interest, I wonder why barbs are recommended? Generally speaking, depending on the fish they are to share the tank with, what about Rasboras? They are not aggressive, they school nicely, and are not overly skittish...just a thought.

 

[SirMinion]

I've kept harlequin rasboras before, and I'm certain that they are too small for this purpose, at least in my case.

The parrots are growing fast and would almost certainly eat the rasboras.
Even if the parrots didn't get them, then I'm certain that the large PGS that shares the tank would.

 

[Iron Man]

I kept tiger barbs in my mbuna tank and they were excellent community members. They weren't anywhere near aggressive enough to even once attempt nipping at one of the cichlids, even the smallest one....yet they weren't too passive that they became lunch.

 

[F 1]

Long finned barbs (Puntius arulius) seem to work very well for me. Constantly active and very peaceful. They do get a little larger than most fish considered as dither fish I think.

F1

 

[chris_1127]

i have a large mixed shoal of tiger and black ruby barbs in with firemouths, rams, clown loaches, a couple of kuhli's and plecs, and not had any problems with the tigers at all. the black rubies are a lot more skittish than the tigers, and ive recently had a problem with a male black ruby leaving another in tatters, but other than that theyve been great too. a lot of people i speak to's first reaction about tigers is "aren't they nippy?" but i can honestly say ive never seen any aggression from them, other than the lips-locked "dance" that the males seem to do to establish dominance.
the mixed shoal of barbs swimming from one end to the other of the tank is a pretty awesome sight too B)

 

[ccg]

I have a tank dedicated to barbs and I have had great experiences with tiger, golden, and cherry barbs. None have ever shown aggression towards each other in any form.

If you get male cherry barbs they are very bright red and look awesome in any tank. A have had a few people comment that male cherry barbs may fight with each other, but I have never had this happen. They are very peaceful but can become shy during feeding time as both the tiger and golden barbs are very aggressive eaters, so I don’t think these would be the best option as a Ditherfish.

Having said that, the golden barbs are anything but shy. When I sit at my desk they all crowd to the corner of the tank so they can see me, they are always on the move and looking for food, they are very nice to watch when feeding. I have found if you feed them a lot of frozen and live food there colours become incredible. Nothing like I have ever seen in any fish store before.

As for my tiger barbs, I started out with two, and even in a small pair like that they were not aggressive towards each other or anyone else. I have finally got the group up to 7 now (Just let 2 out of the bag about an hour ago!). I love tiger barbs and have never had any problems with them but as I said, they are only in with other barbs.

I have only had experiences with the above 3, along with a nice RTBS (who is always peaceful) so I cannot give you any first hand advice on other barbs. Good luck if you do choose do go with barbs, I’m sure they’ll make a nice addition to your tank.

EDIT: The RTBS that I have has been in my tank for about 3 weeks now and is fully grown. I was worried about introducing him as I thought my tiger barbs might nip and bug him, they havnt said two words to each other since he's been in the tank.

My current setup looks like this:

6 Male Cherry barbs (I don't care for the females as there colours are not as nice)
7 Golden barbs
7 Tiger barbs
1 RTBS
1 Pleco