A comprehensive guide to fish
Dither fish and target fish
Neon tetra, Paracheirodon innesi
Dither fish
Dither fish are used to reassure any nervous fish
that would otherwise hide away. Different fish can
be used to suit different situations, There is no
chance of any fish breeding if it is stressed and in
hiding.
Selecting a dither fish is not too problematic if
you follow a few simple guidelines. Obviously the
dither fish must not be aggressive or a fin nipper
nor should it be a hyperactive one that dashes
around all the time. A calm peaceful mid-water fish
is what we really want. It must also come from a
similar environment, temp ph etc.
Once the nervous individuals see the dither fish
are swimming out in the open and coming to no harm,
They must realise that there there are no predators
around and gradually they will calm down. Once
settled it is amazing just how ‘tame’ they can
become.
When I bought my Discus they were about dare I say
it) 3". I introduced them to their tank, They went
right into hiding, So much so that the tank appeared
fishless, The only thing that would tempt them out
was blood worms, And only if I kept perfectly still,
If they saw me move they would panic and hide again,
for hours. I had intended to keep it as a Discus
only tank, but after 3 weeks and my growing concern
about the amount of food they were getting I decided
to introduce some other dither) fish. So I
introduced a shoal of cardinal tetras 24) and 6
Brochis Catfish. Both of these were chosen because
of the environmental factors I mentioned earlier.
Within 3days the discus were out and about, 1
month later I could feed them by hand, And now if I
put my hands in the tank they come and have a
nibble, looking for food.
Best of all, Two pairs have formed and breed on a
regular basis. At 7" a male Discus has no problem
defending his fry against tetras and catfish.
Target Fish
Sometimes despite all your efforts a pair of fish will refuse to breed. Even when you have prepared the tank perfectly, Used healthy vigorous fish, But still nothing. If the fish concerned are territorial, Then the use of a dither fish could really help.
A dither fish is something that the territorial
fish will see as competition, So he will show more
interest in "his" females and His territory and
generally it will snap him out of his to comfortable
life style. The method has proved a success on many
occasions.
A good dither fish as I said before will be a
perceived threat. It must not be a real threat. E.g.
when I bred some small shell dwelling cichlids, I
used some zebra Danios as dither fish, The cichlids
are bottom living and quite clumsy swimmers, While
the Danios are fast moving surface swimmers. So
neither fish posed any real threat to the other, But
the male cichlid still kept a very close eye on his
lady friend just in case.
I must stress please make sure that the choice you
make is a good one where nothing gets hurt
In the case of large aggressive South American cichlids such as the jaguar cichlid, Where any dither fish would be in mortal danger, a simple solution is to place a dither fish in another tank next to the potential couple, So that they can be seen but not touched. This does work and obviously no fish can be harmed. You will still have to monitor the situation though because occasionally a fish can become so obsessed with trying to get rid of a rival that he ignores his intended partner which defeats the whole object of the exercise.
A final note in case you were worried that the Danios could feel some stress about sharing their tank with a territorial cichlid, Well I don’t think so, because they also bred… Even before the cichlids.
General rules
Choose carefully, make sure that the target or dither fish that you select is the best one for the job so that none of the fish end up being stressed or harmed in any way.
Try to match fish which live in similar conditions, with the vast majority of aquarium bred fish this won't be a problem as they are generally quite adaptable so long as extremes are avoided.
Don't use fast moving or large fish as dither fish, it won't work. Use slow, small and peaceful fish which are quite bold and not easily spooked.