official dither thread!!!

[szymon328]

ive done a few searches and couldt find a thread like this, so i figured having a thread about dithers would be informative and cool we can rate the dithers, in this manner for example

resilience

attractiveness

cost

what species they are best for

miscellaneous/perks


please also describe personal experience and post any pics if you have them!!!!

 

[Naos1984]

TINFOIL BARBS...

Resilience - 9/10, bullet-proof unless it is an alligator gar

Attractiveness - 9/10, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you cannot go wrong with these guys, the red-tipped black-lined tail, the silvery shimmer, the schooling behavior

Cost - 9/10, they cost 6$ here at 6" each

What species they are best for? - any fish that hates and tries to eat, bully, harass, chase after silvery/white fish, medium to large cichlids, they grow fast and grow to 14-16", they are fast, can afford to lose a few scales, they have schooling behavior so your mean fish cannot target just one

Miscellaneous/Perks - they are a good cleanup crew plus being omnivorous means you can house them with either group of fish with different diets

Caveats: You need a very large tank to house a few and you may need to get at least 6 of them. You cannot house them in planted tanks with non-robust plants. They will eat the plants. Secondary should be water movement/circulation and enough aeration as they are good and fast swimmers.

 

[strollo22]

Tinfoil barbs...

Resilience - 9/10, bullet-proof unless it is an alligator gar

Attractiveness - 9/10, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you cannot go wrong with these guys, the tail, the silvery shimmer, the behavior

Cost - 9/10, they cost 6$ here at 6" each

What species they are best for? - any fish that hates and tries to eat, bully, harass, chase after silvery/white fish, medium to large cichlids, they grow fast and grow to 14-16", they are fast, can afford to lose a few scales, they have a schooling behavior so your mean fish cannot target just one

Miscellaneous/Perks - they are a good cleanup crew

Agree 100%. They are the perfect dither fish imo


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[szymon328]

Tinfoil barbs...

Resilience - 9/10, bullet-proof unless it is an alligator gar

Attractiveness - 9/10, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you cannot go wrong with these guys, the tail, the silvery shimmer, the behavior

Cost - 9/10, they cost 6$ here at 6" each

What species they are best for? - any fish that hates and tries to eat, bully, harass, chase after silvery/white fish, medium to large cichlids, they grow fast and grow to 14-16", they are fast, can afford to lose a few scales, they have a schooling behavior so your mean fish cannot target just one

Miscellaneous/Perks - they are a good cleanup crew

Great post thank you!! I'm curios if any one has had success with sword tails as dithers.... I'm not too sure if they could take the beating but a few orange or pineapple sword tails that where at full size would be awesome!


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[koltsixx]

Great post thank you!! I'm curios if any one has had success with sword tails as dithers.... I'm not too sure if they could take the beating but a few orange or pineapple sword tails that where at full size would be awesome!


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Swordtails are slow and aren't resilient to physical harm so while they're attractive they aren't good dithers.

Silver Dollars:

resilience:9/10 They can take a severe beating and keep on ticking

attractiveness:can't rate them myself as in my opinion they can be very attractive to pretty plain, Multi Barred SD's are my favorite and I'd give them personally a 9/10

cost:8/10 they can be expensive depending on type and size

what species they are best for: Any fish in my opinion, but I think most use them for cichlids

miscellaneous/perks: Schooling fish adds to their attractiveness, they're extremely hardy and fast swimmers so it's rare IME when they actually get tagged by aggressive fish.

personal experience: I've had SD's get impaled by my Armatus and nearly ripped to shreds by my Curupira and within a week they where pretty much 90%or better healed. They took abuse like I've seen no other fish take abuse.

 

[ecoli73]

Bala sharks...a bit fragile when young for the typical ca/sa cichlids but nice schooling active dithers for more milder cichlids once beyond 6 inches.

I like my red hooks...so far flag tails are good...but I may want to increase them so they don't turn territorial and kill each other.


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[szymon328]

Swordtails are slow and aren't resilient to physical harm so while they're attractive they aren't good dithers.

Silver Dollars:

resilience:9/10 They can take a severe beating and keep on ticking

attractiveness:can't rate them myself as in my opinion they can be very attractive to pretty plain, Multi Barred SD's are my favorite and I'd give them personally a 9/10

cost:8/10 they can be expensive depending on type and size

what species they are best for: Any fish in my opinion, but I think most use them for cichlids

miscellaneous/perks: Schooling fish adds to their attractiveness, they're extremely hardy and fast swimmers so it's rare IME when they actually get tagged by aggressive fish.

personal experience: I've had SD's get impaled by my Armatus and nearly ripped to shreds by my Curupira and within a week they where pretty much 90%or better healed. They took abuse like I've seen no other fish take abuse.

Yea that's what I was worried about to with swordtails :/ I can agree I find sd to be a little bland but I have to look into the multi barred ones, seems like they have potential lol

And jeez they survived getting hit by an Armatus?!? That's insane! The fang must have gone all the way through to the other side right?


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[koltsixx]

Yea that's what I was worried about to with swordtails :/ I can agree I find sd to be a little bland but I have to look into the multi barred ones, seems like they have potential lol

And jeez they survived getting hit by an Armatus?!? That's insane! The fang must have gone all the way through to the other side right?


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Yep the fang did and the wounds looked very serious and this was a decent sized SD about 6 inches. He was a bloody mess I thought he was a goner I had no where to put him as my quarantine tank was being used for treating a case of velvet in a new arrival. So he stayed in the tank with the Armatus and same day he was acting normal again and by the end of the week you could barely tell he was attacked.

 

[isde02]

Swordtails are slow and aren't resilient to physical harm so while they're attractive they aren't good dithers.

Silver Dollars:

resilience:9/10 They can take a severe beating and keep on ticking

attractiveness:can't rate them myself as in my opinion they can be very attractive to pretty plain, Multi Barred SD's are my favorite and I'd give them personally a 9/10

cost:8/10 they can be expensive depending on type and size

what species they are best for: Any fish in my opinion, but I think most use them for cichlids

miscellaneous/perks: Schooling fish adds to their attractiveness, they're extremely hardy and fast swimmers so it's rare IME when they actually get tagged by aggressive fish.

personal experience: I've had SD's get impaled by my Armatus and nearly ripped to shreds by my Curupira and within a week they where pretty much 90%or better healed. They took abuse like I've seen no other fish take abuse.

x2 I love my sd's they're tough and will even bite back, the only con I have are my wide bar sd's are currently out eating my growout pbass lol

 

[Pomatomus]

Giant danios aren't bad for smaller tanks and inhabitants. Nice and active...and at about $1-$2 a pop they're hard to beat in price!