Dithers for salvinis?

[missmary]

As the title of the thread states, I'm curious about what dithers would work with my salvinis. When I bought them at around 1-1.5" and had only a large clay pot and substrate in their tank, they were very outgoing and constantly swam about the tank. However, after adding several med-lrg rocks, some plants, and one of those huge hollow coliseum ornaments from Petsmart to their tank, they've taken to hiding almost constantly and come out only to eat. This has been the opposite of my experience with my other cichlids (they would seem more comfortable and outgoing with a well-decorated tank).

I like the coloration on serpae tetras (I used to use these as dithers with my angels), but I don't think these would fare very well with the salvinis. Do you think 4-6 giant danios or rainbows would work out and encourage the salvinis to come out a bit more? Any other suggestions?

Oh, and I'm pretty sure two of the salvinis are pairing up. From what I can tell (based on the presence/lack of spots on their gillplates), the two fish that have taken residensy in the hollow coliseum ornament are male and female. I do plan on removing the remaining salvinis once the pair is confirmed, but I would like to have some fast dithers for the parents to focus their aggression on and not have them take it out on one another.

 

[robmcd]

I would hide too if someone put a piece of petsmart decor in my tank.... Try some silver dollars or buenos aires tetras. Both sold at petsmart....

 

[EJKC]

I would use several giant danios. I had 6 in my tank with my 10" oscar and 9" jack and they worked out greatly for me.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Do those giant danios school together? Im tihnking about getting some dithers for my JD, Salvini, Sajica and Blue Acara. I was thiking some barbs or tetras since they school. I dont know mcuh about danios.

 

[fish_n_vw]

Ok salvini's hiding is normal and natural in the wild they are found with all the members of the parachromis family along with numerous vieja species. These fish are all big and mean. The salvini found a nitch in this system as a hider. They will stay within there respective territory and defend it from all (very well I might add), including dovii. They are mean to other males of there species and are really aggresive to there mates when fry become free swimming. I think putting anything except convicts on the small side and larger aggresive cichlids with them is just setting your self up for desaster. My breeding pair have a female jag as there dither and I always feel bad for her. You can try silver dollars and you will only have to replace a few a year. But the male will get around 9-10 inches and will adventually kill off everything including his mate. My male is on his third female and he's only 7 inches and 2 years old. I have kept and bred these fish for around 6 years and all my males have been the same. So from my experiance I would not recomend any tankmates smaller then your male when not breeding and a really big 150+ gallon tank with one big mean "dither" when they are breading. Good luck and I hope I had the info you were looking for.