Dithers with vieja fenestratus

[Gourami Swami]

Small fish like your neon or cardinal tetras will most likely be eaten. Vieja will still eat smaller fish, they are opportunistic like all cichlids and while not strictly piscivorous like parachromis sprecies for example, they will still snack on anything that can fit in their mouth.
I would agree with livebearers being a better choice. Even livebearers will eat some fry however.
You also may not need dithers. See how the fene's behave. If they are shy and hide most of the time dithers may help, if they are outgoing there is no real need for dither fish, who's purpose is to make the big guys feel safe.

 

[Cichlidobssesed]

In nature they are primarily vegetarian, but will pick off tiny fish (especially in the confines of a tank).
They share habitat in Mexico with Poecilia mollies (also primarily algae eaters) , so to me, these would be a good choice, as they are large enough to not be eaten, but small enough to not pose a threat, and will inhabit the higher areas of the tank, fenestrata the lower areas near the substrate.
And in nature fenestratus live in hard, mineral rich water, and those riverine varients will often enter brackish, even sea water , same as mollies (sail fin type are prime examples).

RO type, mineral poor water may not be good choice for them.
When Stakowski collected them, he reported
pH 7-8
general hardness 4-11 dGH
calcium hardness 5 -13 KH
Mine spawned in medium hard water (@250ppm Total hardness) pH 7.6-7.8.
If breeding is your intent, and want to keep fry, medium or large tetras may not be a good idea, as they are consummate fry predators, very quick and accurate hunters.
I just had a pair of Andinoacara spawn in a heavily planted 180 gal, it contains some Roboides tetras, each day the tetras methodically reduced the free swimming fry school, until within less than a week there were no more fry.
My intent was not to save fry.

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I'm confused? Are you assuming I put r/o water directly back into the tank? R/o water is not mineral poor. It has exactly the amount of mineral content you put in it. In my case most of my fish enjoy somewhere between 6 to 10 hardness

 

[duanes]

Rather than write it out.
What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation Remove ...www.historyofwaterfilters.com › ro-distillation

 

[Cichlidobssesed]

Rather than write it out.
What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation Remove ...www.historyofwaterfilters.com › ro-distillation

I may be mistaken but isnt that the point? You take everything out then add back in what you want. For example equilibrium, cichlid trace, acid and alkaline buffers. And I don't use r/o water, like I said my system gets down to about a 2 hardness. It uses a combination of a massive carbon filter and a large tank with a coconut shell resin to remove heavy metals, chlorine, toxins and most hardness. After that I age it in a reservoir and use a combo similar to what I described previously to bring the hardness back up to around 10 with a similar KH I also use american cichlid salt. So why would this be bad for fish? Take out everything including the bad, add back in everything they need

 

[Cichlidobssesed]

Rather than write it out.
What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation Remove ...www.historyofwaterfilters.com › ro-distillation

And in reference to the article I add back the various minerals needed for healthy fish. Like iron and manganese. The equilibrium contains most of these in appropriate quantities relative to hardness but some I also supplement based on origin of fish

 

[Cichlidobssesed]

Rather than write it out.
What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation Remove ...www.historyofwaterfilters.com › ro-distillation

I'm still confused though, I would assume using straight r/O water with any fish would be harmful. I may be missing the point to this because I'm pretty sure most people who use r/o water go through these steps to keep healthy fish of any variety. So what would my water that I carfully remineralize and build to the perfect conditions be missing that tap water isnt?

 

[duanes]

I agree, using straight RO can be harmful.
For soft water species I would mix part RO with tap water.
For hard water fish I use straight tap, but this is my water, and may depend on the constituents of your tap water.
I didn't notice in your first post about remineralizing.

 

[duanes]

I'm curious what substances in your water are you trying to get rid of.
What city do you live in (Flint?)
Are you on municipal water (surface or well) or a private well?

 

[Cichlidobssesed]

I agree, using straight RO can be harmful.
For soft water species I would mix part RO with tap water.
For hard water fish I use straight tap, but this is my water, and may depend on the constituents of your tap water.
I didn't notice in your first post about remineralizing.

There really isnt anything wrong with my tap water as hardness goes and I used in the past with no issues

I'm curious what substances in your water are you trying to get rid of.
What city do you live in (Flint?)

My entire home is on a water filtration system, for unrelated reasons.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Small dithers (like small livebearers or tetras) make fish feel more at ease, and give something to defend against but in my experience cichlid pairs don't feel too threatened by smaller dithers and thus they don't really strengthen pair bonds
There's also the chance that they just get eaten
Larger dithers (like large mollies or larger tetras) also make fish feel more secure because of the activity and they see them as more of a threat, so larger dithers are better for pairings, especially for larger cichlids because there's less of a chance the dithers themselves get eaten
However the best dither I've found is smaller cichlids
Just slightly smaller cichlids that pose no threat to your fish
That seems to keep pairs together more in my experience, and I get alot more fry that way
So I say have at least one smaller cichlid with the vieja and then a bunch of whatever smaller fast moving fish you want just to keep the pair occupied with defending against those when they're not sparring with the other cichlids
I recommend a pair of rainbow cichlids and sailfin mollies if you're keen on breeding and having a nice tank at the same time