'Dither' fish...

[Racersk]

Well I just learned, okay, a couple of days ago, but close enough... What a 'dither' fish was and it's purpose. Basically an outgoing fish to bring out a shy fish in the same tank... Do I have the concept right?

I just(tonight) added 4 tinfoil barbs to my cooler tank, 73*, specifically for this purpose. I wanted to bring out my bowfin that seems to be very light shy. My tank is pretty bright with a white sand substrate and a bright dual 48" Home Depot T8 setup, and this fish came from a gravel base with possibly x1 single 18" florescent tube for lighting.

The second reason was to slow these barbs down, in the other 90g I had them with my knifes and bichirs, they made all their tankmates nervous and I even saw the barbs dive bomb the bichirs! They have no parasites or ich, but they were constantly rubbing on everything, substrate, ornaments, other fish...They made it into a game, one would do it, then another would follow in suite, all four did this. I figured if they were in slightly cooler water, 8*, and with a bit more active fish, bowfin and green sunfish, they might be a little more hesitant to f*#$ with everything they see!

What have you guys used for dither fish? What have been the results?

 

[NCStateFisher]

if ur tinfoils mess with ur bowfin they're Fk3d hahaha xD - i had some giant danios in my tank who would do similar things like u said following each other and doing stuff etc etc, well guess what, one decided to swim right up the filter intake and another followed -___-

 

[Racersk]

Totally believable!

These guys are total lemmings! Even now, in this particular tank, I bought a $4 Shubunkin, figuring it'll either be a cool up front edition or an expensive meal for the bowfin...Still swimming strong with no fin damage (1 month and counting), either it's fast, or my bow doesn't know that it is food...

These 4 tin foils are sticking to that GF! Just like they did with my lone bala in the other tank, lemmings! At least the 5 look close to the same, haha...

 

[TheRealAndyCook]

6 inch JD and a 8 inch red ear'd slider worked pretty good...they both made eachother extremely active

 

[Racersk]

Red eared slider is a turtle right?! That brought a fish out into the open>! cool!

 

[TheRealAndyCook]

Yup.

 

[johno27]

I am a big fan of red hooks and tin foils

It is a lesser known fact that tin foils love to eat sting ray poop

Less poop scooping for me

 

[Racersk]

I am a big fan of red hooks and tin foils

It is a lesser known fact that tin foils love to eat sting ray poop

Less poop scooping for me

lol...I believe it!

They are shoaling by themselves now. with the occasional flyby on my sunfish. I wonder how long this will last, before the sunfish puts the smackdown on one of them, haha...

 

[Dark Jester]

Well I just learned, okay, a couple of days ago, but close enough... What a 'dither' fish was and it's purpose. Basically an outgoing fish to bring out a shy fish in the same tank... Do I have the concept right?

Guess my understanding of Dither was off if that's right..

I was under the impression that it was basically a 'target' fish. Something to absorb agression. i.e. you have a couple agressive fish that like to tear each other up. You add a dither fish to the tank to take some of the agression. The fish will go after the dither instead of each other. Thought that was why most people recommend that the dither be a fast hardy fish like a silver dollar or convict.

Edit: I've never actually seen it specifically defined before, that was just the impression I got from the context I see it used in.

 

[Racersk]

Totally fine, that's why I brought it up... I have heard the term tossed around, but didn't know what it was refering too. Basicly a stres reliever fo rthe tank in question. that's how I interpret the term.



Brought out my sunfish, but the bowfin is still being stubborn!