Angels as dithers??

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Sarah88

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2009
3,919
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Wilmington, NC
ok so right now my 5ft 120g is a bit overstocked (once mature its way overstocked but not too bad right now) only fish larger than 5.5in is my vontehillo at 6in, robertsoni at 7.8in and largest senegal at 6in. so right now the entire stock besides them are:
Escondido ~4in
JD ~5in
GT ~4in
Argentea ~4.5in
Festae ~3in
2 more senegals
3x pictus

i plan to have my final stock for cichlids just be the argentea, festae, and one of the carpintis (maybe both but doubt they will get along, and may have to separate argentea if he turns into an a-hole) and the senegals and cats for bottom dwellers (am trying to find new homes for the JD, GT and robertsoni right now but not many people keep new world cichlids around here :()

so my question is do you guys think i could get like 4 angels and put them in there as dithers, my aggression right now is pretty minimal (since they are all young, but they seem to get along well and the only one im really worried about changing as they age is the argentea). i mean there is chasing here and there of course but no real damage and none of them mess with the senegals or cats. i was thinking that the angels should look different enough that they wouldn't really view them as cichlids, none of my fish are fin nippers so i don't think that would be a problem and if it would be possible wanted to add the angels while they are still young and more likely to accept them, so what do you guys think? a definite failure waiting to happen?
 
Dithers? Dithers are used to draw out shy fish. Do you have shy fish?
 
^^^ What he said. Also, dithers are supposed to be robust species that can avoid getting beaten up, angels are fragile and slow, they wouldn't last more than a month.
 
not really shy no, but i would like to have more movement in the middle/upper parts of the tank since my fish stay mainly around the driftwood, and that's why i asked the question before getting them, i just wanted to ask and see whether they would be able to hack it or not in my tank
 
angels would not last long with those fish. I don't have experiance argentea, but carpintes and festae would make short work of them. I tried angels with some convicts none of the cons were over half an inch. they last about a month
 
ok yeah well i just liked angels and never had them so just thought id ask if they would work, since they wont work is there anything else yall would suggest besides silver dollars? needs to be something with a taller body and isnt skittish in its movements, i tried zebra danios a couple months back and my senegals finished off all 12 of them within 5min of them being put in the tank (as long as they don't swim with jerky prey movements my senegals ignore every other thing in the tank)
 
Tigerbarbs might work. In a large tank and a descent school of large ones you might be ok. Mine are thriving with my Midas. Just be sure to get them at a descent size and group. Got 3 colors to choose from which I have all 3, and if you get clown loaches they will school together.
 
Bderick67;4163326; said:
Dithers? Dithers are used to draw out shy fish. Do you have shy fish?
Click to expand...

Dithers are used to calm fish down actually. When bigger fish see schooling fish acting calm they typically take their cue from them that everything is safe.
 
yeah i thought about tiger barbs they are definitely an option, but yeah i just didnt want to go with silver dollars because i thought they would get to big for me to have a decent sized school, i mean i would like to have a nice size school of something but silver dollars get like 6in dont they so wouldnt that be a TON of extra bioload for a 120 if i got six of them?
 
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