Okay, so I have a 9 inch CK in my tank, a 7 inch ornate bichir, a 6 inch datnoid and a 6 inch jade sleeper goby in my tank. I have other fish as well, but these are the four predatory fish I have to look out for. I have a shoal of 5 silver dollars and 7 clown loaches in my tank as dither fish to bring motion and color, but I would like to add a shoal of really small fish as the tank still looks bare. I was thinking about buying some zebra danios, black skirt tetras or something like that. Are these fish small enough to be ignored or will they be preyed upon? Are there any other shoaling fish I could put in the tank that stays small, are very active and will be ignored by the predators in the tank?
small dither fish to bring motion to the tank
- Thread starter TheEelKing
- Start date
zebra danios, black skirt tetras or something like that is my 12in CK's favourite food in large numbers. I wouldn't reccomend it. The fun thing about having predators though is that if something dosen't work out, its just good food for your fish. I encourage you to try everything at your lfs until one of them dosen't get eaten. if your CK is lazy though you could try giant danios, though mine isn't good at catching them, he enjoys the taste.
One thing that may work is tiger barbs, or anything fast that is vertically striped. They use this as a defense in the wild against stalking predators like bichirs (if they were from africa) and CK (which are from the same env), they swim fast back and fourth across eachother until the stalking fish is confused as to which fish he is looking at.
I once got a school of tiger barbs to feed my ck. I watched them use this tactic to confuse him to the point that he would strike and hit the glass every time, then run away in frustration. I eventually removed them because I was scared he would hurt himself trying to catch them.
SO that might work
One thing that may work is tiger barbs, or anything fast that is vertically striped. They use this as a defense in the wild against stalking predators like bichirs (if they were from africa) and CK (which are from the same env), they swim fast back and fourth across eachother until the stalking fish is confused as to which fish he is looking at.
I once got a school of tiger barbs to feed my ck. I watched them use this tactic to confuse him to the point that he would strike and hit the glass every time, then run away in frustration. I eventually removed them because I was scared he would hurt himself trying to catch them.
SO that might work
I like this idea, as I had 2 tiger barbs left from a bad cycle and I put them into my predator tank, they LOVE it! I have Oscars and bichirs and these faster tiger barbs are getting around like they own the place! I also have dollars in there too...the oscars are done chasing the fast prey, the birchirs can't keep up in the light...Only feeders are targeted now.
This has been 2 weeks and counting, the barbs have no missing finnage, at all.
This has been 2 weeks and counting, the barbs have no missing finnage, at all.
For the most part, they will become food, especially for the 6" Dat. The Dat is still small enough to consider them food. If anything, I'd go with the Danios...they might be small and fast enough. My lfs actually sells baby Zebra Danio as feeders...a dozen for $1
I tried the zebra danios and they ended up swimming into the overflow box and from there, landed in the sump tank. Zebra danios are out. I tried some australian rainbow fish, and they were too fast to be eaten during the day, however, at night, they were gobbled. Any other ideas?
I have a 3-4 year old 6" senegal. I went out and purchased 8 Tiger barbs to spruce up the tank a bit. I thought with their shape, look, speed and size they might make it. Three got taken out on the first night. The remaining 5 made it for about 2 weeks. Today I watched him take them out one by one, I don't even know how they fit in his mouth lol. Will be following to see results.
Congo Tetras would just become expensive feeders. Maybe some Neon Tetras. The Danios probably went through your overflow since they are top level swimmers. Neons are more mid level swimmers.