grammodes dither disappointing disaster

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darthodo

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2006
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Georgia
Well, after several suggestions to add some dithers to my grammode tank, I did. I have a 3.5" male grammode in a 55, alone. I added 6, 2" Buenos Aires tetras yesterday afternoon. I thought they would give him some competition and stimulate feeding and I thought they were big enough to not resemble food. The lfs owner that sold them to me said they were fast and should be okay. I have one left today, and that one has a conspicuous chunk taken out of his belly and he is fading fast. The rest disappeared or were found dead, systematically one by one, once they were put in the tank. Right before the lights went out last night there were 4, very scared tetras still there. Today at noon when the lights came on, one mortally wounded tetra left.

When I introduced them I acclimated them like I do most fish and they were schooling pretty well and eating within 15 minutes after release. I put in a bunch of fake plants to give them some hiding spaces and break up line-of-sight attack lanes. He came out and was checking them out soon and I left them after feeding him a piece of freeze-dried krill. I came back a few hours later and one was dead and another missing. The tetras were not schooling anymore and he seemed to have each one hemmed-up in a corner of the tank. The grammode seemed to know what he was doing, but I'm not sure. He would go check on each one and make sure the fish was still in its corner. I sat and watched for awhile and figured I'd let the chips fall where they may. Lesson learned. I think I'm gonna ditch the dither idea. I don't have access to any convicts over an inch and I don't think the small ones would do well. Maybe larger dithers like full-grown giant danios may work.
 
i have read a lot on here about tetras being poor dithers/targets even though they are recommended by some others on other sites. i used filament barbs and they are very pretty and extremely fast, unsure of how they will do against a grammode.
barbs are backed by more people on here along with giant danios. i would try filament barbs as they are twice as fast as tetras and grow to about 5" but they are slightly more expensive than most tetras, in the UK at least.
let us know how you get on because i want a grammode but need to know what will go in with it.
do you have bottom dwellers in with the grammode and if so then what? i was thinking a group of pictus.
 
Female convict and Rainbow Cichlid have been moved from my Grammodes tank. They were fine until the Grammodes hit 3.5-4" mark. Rainbow almost lost an eye before a divider was used. Convict still has bad swim bladder from Grammodes attacks but eats and chases Rainbow around in their 29g.

Grammode aggression is no joke. He's killed alot of my fish and hardly ever gets feeders. Only live foods i've given him is some guppy juvies, earth worms, and tiger barb i tried to use a dithers /doh
 
I had some 1-2" albino bristlenose plecos in there but he killed them. I may add some giant danios or maybe even some tiger barbs. I don't like sacrificing fish continually though.
 
I watched my midas hunt 3" GDs when he was only barely an inch long. My istlanum was even worse. Not really surprising that any piscovore will be hard on 'bait fish' ;)

With enough cover, bristlenose plecos will be able to survive. Not like you'd ever see it. I have one in the tank with a pair of spawning RTMs. They TRY to catch it, but there's enough driftwood to keep it mostly safe :P
 
bummer get some Giant danios they should hole up better or mabye a convict they may fight back and could scrape up your grammode so i would go with danios
 
Grammodes are killers any fish that is in the tank is a potential victim. The best bet is a larger pleco
 
not a grammode, but my male rtm kills everything put with him. it sucks, but that is the way it is. he is and will most likely be a solo fish for life. when he moves to his 120 gal. i may try some sort of pleco but i doubt it. on the bright side keeping a fish solo keeps them pristine as far as injuries. he will come out more as he gets larger.
 
I'm not too interested in tankmates so much as I am using fish to get him more interested in eating by making him think he has to compete for food. I'm not sure I will be successful though.
 
i dont know if i got lucky, but i have two silver dollars in with my grammode pair. neither grammode pays any attention to the them
 
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