Dithers

[spAcE mOnkEy]

i have a 36 inch 30 gallon tank with a jelly bean parrot, 4in, and a belly crawler pike cichlid, 5in. the jelly bean is always hiding, and only comes out when he moves from cave to cave, or when hes eating. i was wondering if there were any good dither fish i could put in this tank that wouldnt be eaten. thanks!

 

[F 1]

I have long finned barbs (Puntius arulius) that work well as a larger dither fish.

http/www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/arulius.xml

F1

 

[cichlidlovr]

how long have you had the parrot fish? mine was very shy when I first got him, maybe he just needs more time. I have 4 giant danios in my tank with my parrotfish and my small bleekeri cichlids, they are very fast and my fish seem to leave them alone, I wouldn't recommend having dither fish with long sweeping fins as they might be more interested in trying to nip them. what is the personality of your pike? some are very mean others not so bad.

 

[FrAnK3333]

Danios are great dither fish.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

i think the parrot looks more like convict cichlid, and ive had him for about a year. ive had him since he was less then an inch long, he was sold to me as a regular pink convict cichlid. first he was in a 15 gal, then a 55 gal, now hes in the 30 gal. in the 55 he would swim all around, he was the dominant fish, until i put some jack dempseys in there. (i was still new to fish keeping when i did this) now all my tanks are the way the should be. in the 30 gal with pinky is the belly crawler. i got him from a friend that couldnt keep him any longer, so i put him in the tank with the parrot. i named the parrot "pinky". Pinky and the pike fought alot when i first put them together, but now since the territory places are claimed, they leave eachother alone. pinky made a small nest next to the pike's territory, and Pinky tries to fight with him, but the pike just ignores him. Pinky cant fit into where the pike is. Pinky has two main spots that he switches from hanging out in. one place he hangs out in are 2 flower pots with a piece of slate going over the two, making a cave. theres also another flat rock against the slate ontop of the two pots, it makes a large cave. the other spot Pinky hangs out in is under a large rock near the Pike cichlids territorry, Pinky chases the pike when he sees him come out, but the pike usually doesnt have to move from his little cave, he just eats then goes back in the cave. its rare that pinky chases him around alot. the pike leaves pinky alone unless Pinky decides to have a little fight. The pike eats every piece of food that floats by his little cave, and he doesnt attack pinky in any way. but if there were a little fish or something that would go by his cave, he would eat it. The pike did kill other fish in my friends tank though. They are both VERY cool fish.

 

[juanveldez]

I still say that black skirt tetras would be a good dither for a tank that size. and for the fish that size.

 

[trimacdevilconvict]

i think your tank is too small for your fish but if you want dither fish then i would suggest t-barbs

 

[juanveldez]

well I suppose it was time for me to go digging through the tons of sites and books that I have anyways. space I know your fish well as we have chatted many a times about them.

but for those of you who dont
the belly crawler aka crenicichla sp belly crawler is a small pike only gets to be between 4-6 inches. want proof here is a link to Vinny Kutty's site.
http/www.geocities.com/NapaValley/5491/b...rawlerpage.html

Vinny Kutty is possibly one of the top minds when it comes to pike cichlids.

so knowing that spaces pike is at 5 inches I would venture to guess that it is probably as full grown as it is going to get and will be perfectly happy in a 30 gallon tank. dithers yes you can add a few, just make sure that they can stand some punishment and or move out of the way but don't move so fast that the cichlids won't get their food, I had used giant danios in the past as dithers and they would always eat the cichlids food before the cichlids could get to it so out they went. wouldn't suggest tiger barbs as you would need too many of them to make them comfortable as a school in the tank thus over crowding your tank but you could probably get away with maybe 3 black skirts.

 

[Fishy411]

whats a dither?

 

[lucky62]

whats a dither?

see last post

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

thanks for the advice, just got 3 black skirts today, in a special tank for 99 cents each. also got some kind of head stander fish, it was looking sickly and kinda weak, not like it had a desease or something. they are in my 10 gal quarintine tank now, and im gonna keep them in there for about 2 days, and make sure they dont get ick or anything. so i got these 4 fish for $4. im happy!
if the fish start beatin the crap out of the black skirts, i got a 33 gal tank with an angel fish, 2 ADF's, 2 clown plecs. im sure they will be ok in there, and maybe i would use them for my main shoaling fish in that tank with the angel. right now im just letting the baby angel fish get used to the tank without any stress of other fish bothering him.

 

[DannyBoy17]

I kept my Penguin Tetras in with my NW's. They are so darned fast!

DB

 

[FrAnK3333]

Danios are the fastest.

 

[Fishy411]

Danios are the fastest.

yeah. I havve a hard time catching mine in a 10 gallon it would be impossible in my 55. I could barely catch my rams in the 55

 

[FrAnK3333]

lol I had a hard time trying to catch them in my 20 gallon, in fact I gave up and kept them. Im glad I did I would miss them.