CA Dithers

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TheFishDodo

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 31, 2018
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I finnaly decided to go with a pair of panamensis for my 40 gal which is coming in. Now I need some do dither/target fish for them. My only thing about the fish is that they need to come from Central America and the closer they are to Panama the better. (Sorry Buenos Aires tetras your not going in this tank) I have 3 ideas for possible fish.

1. Yucatan Molly (is far away but beautiful)
2. Green Swordtail
3. Shortfin Molly (sometimes likes brackish)


Also if anyone has any ideas for a catfish or bottom dweller for the tank which is from CA that would be great.
 
dan518 said:
Bottom dwellers from ca are very rair in the hobby, as for dithers I would go with the green swordtails.
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Ill probably go with Swordtail.

But thats unfortunate that CA bottom dwellers are not common in the hobby the only catfish I can think of from CA is the eclipse catfish which get to be 18".
 
I found one small catfish from panama but good luck to me to find them forsale theyr scientific name is Hoplosternum punctatum.
 
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The Merry Widow (often available in live bearer clubs and circles) Phallichthys amates is native to Panama, as are Poecilia gillii (a type of sail fin molly, and there are too many more Poecilia to name. These are found in the book the Freshwater fish of Costa Rica by William Bussing, which is "the" consummate guide (with maps) I use here in Panama myself.
The genus names are a bit outdated, but the species names hardly ever change so very useful, and it has some decent photos
It also contains many species of Killifish that may be available thru the American killifish association.
 
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duanes said:
The Merry Widow (often available in live bearer clubs and circles) Phallichthys amates is native to Panama, as are Poecilia gillii (a type of sail fin molly, and there are too many more Poecilia to name.
Click to expand...

I was looking at the merry widow livebearer but I thought that they liked to have plants which my aquarium is supposed to be a stream biotope which consists of sand braches and rocks. I'm defitnetly considering a species from Poecilia as my dither. Now to try and find a bottom dweller maybe something from other countries in CA if I cant find anything from panama.

Edit: Ill also have to look at livebearers from other countries if I can find a bottom dweller from another country.
 
There are plenty of Pimiloid catfish from the area, but all would be to large, and compete with panamense, (except the pigmy catfish, genus Nannorhamdia linniata or Pimilodella chagresi) because in a true sense panamense are already bottom dwellers.
There are also Pleco types, but all would eat any panamense eggs and wrigglers, and compete for territory, and are too large for your tank, like most Pimeloids.
The only endemic Pleco-like cat types reasonable (if you don't care about panamense fry) enough for that tiny tank, are the from the Rio Chagres basin, and are some of the stick cats (Rineloricaria) but as are Plecos, they are nocturnal feeders and would destroy any cichlid eggs or wrigglers. And would be very hard to find in LFSs (?)
These stick cats are similar to Farlowella of the Amazon.
 
duanes said:
There are plenty of Pimiloid catfish from the area, but all would be to large, and compete with panamense, (except the pigmy catfish, genus Nannorhamdia linniata or Pimilodella chagresi) because in a true sense panamense are already bottom dwellers.
There are also Pleco types, but all would eat any panamense eggs and wrigglers, and compete for territory, and are too large for your tank, like most Pimeloids.
The only endemic Pleco-like cat types reasonable (if you don't care about panamense fry) enough for that tiny tank, are the from the Rio Chagres basin, and are some of the stick cats (Rineloricaria) but as are Plecos, they are nocturnal feeders and would destroy any cichlid eggs or wrigglers. And would be very hard to find in LFSs (?)
These stick cats are similar to Farlowella of the Amazon.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. So I should probably not go with a bottom dweller because of a bigger footprint needed. Also I am not planning on raising to many fry I would prefer to let nature take its course with many of the fry because I dont have any tanks to grow them out in. So I'm thinking about a pair of Panamensis and some type of livebearer as my stocking.
 
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