Livebearers as Dithers for cichlids

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Well, I have a carpintis (Escondido) in a 90 gallon tank as a wet pet. Great fish. Loads of personality and beautiful coloration/markings. He started off a little over 3 inches with 5 Danios in the tank as dither fish. They were systematically murdered and eaten over a period of 4 days. Danios are pretty quick but this carpintis is smart. he would corral them up into the water output flow from the 2 Eheim 2217 and keep them fighting that current. He literally forced them to wear themselves out and then picked them off 1 by 1. Watched him do this. Swordtails/livebearers are not going to stand a chance with a larger predatory cichlid especially once they get some size. I breed killis and swords in separate tanks & let the carpintis (Elvis) be my culling machine.
 
Thanks, i like learning about the natural behavior's and want them to feel comfortable in my tank. I do think giant danios are pretty once full grown with their pink and blue shimmer. And roselines are very cool. As far as keeping it natural I've got kids and let them help decorateso there's fake anemones and a spongebob pineapple in there.?
 
  • Like
Reactions: aussieman57
I really love the carpintis but more i hear about them the more i think I'm better off with a pair of gt or a gt and another mid size cichlid. Might be cool to try to get a a few gts and see if i can get a pair . and just let the pictus pick off the fry when they come. It's tough only having 1 tank lol
 
If there was a perfect thread for my current plans I think this would be it lol.

I recently rehomed my Carpintis. He’s was in a 75. He would attack pretty much anything in his tank: the siphon, the magnet cleaner, even sized up my hand a couple times. And he was only about 6 inches. I don’t think anything would have stood a chance in that tank.

Now in the 75 I have 6 swordtails with plans to move my convict in there as a solo cichlid. That’s going to be the entire stock for the tank. I’d love to hear others’ experience with keeping Amatitlania and livebearers together.
 
What other cichlids would make good tankmqtes for a gt with somedither fish and bottom feeders? My lfs doesn't keep convicts, they claim they breed too fast and weren't popular enough.
 
I have kept livebearers before with Honduran Red Points, Nanolutae and Apistogramma. No real issues, breeding pairs will run them off but no real attacking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Matth05
I believe as others have said, with those of the Amatitlania genus (non-piscivores, inept predators) you will probably be fine in a 75.
The thing about larger piscivorine cichlids, is, in almost any tank(especially anything under 6 ft), they can corner anything edible, because their prey has only (in reality) inches of escape room.
In nature a dither fish usually has at least 10 ft in all directions of clean, unlimited getaway space.
I have watched JDs in Mexican Cenotes try to capture live bearers, and they miss 9 (Or more) times out of 10.
Whereas in a 4 ft tank, its pretty hard to miss.
1663528217117.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: tlindsey, Matth05 and Deadeye
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom