Hmm Dither Fish Are Being Eaten

[MermaidMel]

I had 10 tiger barbs, bought them on advice from this site. They have gradually dwindled in numbers, I'm now witness how/why - the rest of the tank are killing them and eating them, nobody is sitting out this 'activity' so what dither fish could I have that won't get eaten - or shall I just not bother with dither fish?

 

[AmazonFTW]

What fish are eating them? Your JD? Ellioti?

 

[MermaidMel]

I had 10 tiger barbs, bought them on advice from this site. They have gradually dwindled in numbers, I'm now witness how/why - the rest of the tank are killing them and eating them, nobody is sitting out this 'activity' so what dither fish could I have that won't get eaten - or shall I just not bother with dither fish?

All of them, the gold sev, acara, sajicas, ellioti and jack dempsey, it's a mass bully then kill then eat congregation

 

[AmazonFTW]

I assume they were not fully grown tiger barbs then? If not then try and buy a species like Columbian Redfin Tetras (or more Tiger Barbs) but make sure they're full size (or big enough not to fit in the largest fishes mouth). If the Tiger Barbs are already full grown and the cichlids are being really aggressive towards them I'd suggest you get the remaining Tiger Barbs out ASAP and just leave dithers out.

I'm not accusing you here but are you feeding enough? They may be doing it because they're hungry (just a guess). I've never experienced this and my Ellioti (6") completely ignores my Silvertip Tetras and trust me, he's not a nice fish personality wise..

AmazonFTW

 

[snowflake311]

I always say big fish eat smaller fish it's just life. I have tried Many dithers with my big cichlids and they never last. Don't keep smaller fish with big fish. My blue acara was the wrost about hunting fish. IME "difthers" are not needed for larger cichlids and they do not last. Move the ones you still have to a safe tank and don't add any other small fish to your mix.

 

[kevinjames]

i kept columbian tetras with my south american cichlids without any hassle. if they were small barbs i can see this happening so try sourcing adult tiger barbs as these would definately be too big to be eaten imo.

 

[hamfist]

Dither fish are not necessary as such. But can be useful if your larger fish are nervous about coming out in the open. Also dithers can add movement and colour to a tank. But obviously its up to you whether you want (or need) any.

COmmonly used dithers for larger cichlids are giant danios, silver dollars and various rainbow fish. For even more feisty cichlids, people often use convicts as dithers. ALl are "bigger", fast and quite sturdy. And slightly more likely to last than tiger barbs (which are generally pretty good themselves).

 

[MermaidMel]

They weren't full grown tiger barbs, more like mid size, but none of my cichlids are full grown, they are about 2" at the moment, I thought I was feeding enough but maybe I'm not : /

 

[AmazonFTW]

Sounds like you have some super aggressive fish . I have a 2" Blue Acara and 2x 2" Severums in with a Cardinal Tetra and they ignore it. Saying that the Cichlids have a constant supply of food and therefore have no need to attack it... (I had 4 'algae shrimp' and they multiplied - the Cichlids are my way of controlling this in a nicer way than just killing the shrimp (which I would never do).

I'm really unsure on this one - were the Tiger Barbs just swimming round normally when it happened or did they look unwell? If they had something wrong the cichlids may just have been taking advantage.

AmazonFTW

 

[snowflake311]

Are they jumping ship? Some times if they are getting chased the little fish jump out of the tank. This happen to me a few times. My blue acara when she was 4" took out a few xray tetras that I thought would not fit in her mouth but she got them. Don't under estimant the size of a smaller cichlids mouth.