Tetras/barbs With Cichlids?

[kuri33]

Has anyone tried it before?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

This is very common practice, the tetras/barbs/livebearers act as "dither fish" for the cichlids, reassuring the cichlids that if there are fish playing above them happily, nothing dangerous is lurking nearby.

The trick is judging a good match of dither fish against the cichlid(s) in question, for instance you would not put a group of Beckford Pencilfish in with a pair of Oscar Cichlids, as the former would be "live lunch!" The dithers need to have similar water chemisty; temperature; water flow etc. requirements.

 

[kuri33]

This is very common practice, the tetras/barbs/livebearers act as "dither fish" for the cichlids, reassuring the cichlids that if there are fish playing above them happily, nothing dangerous is lurking nearby.

The trick is judging a good match of dither fish against the cichlid(s) in question, for instance you would not put a group of Beckford Pencilfish in with a pair of Oscar Cichlids, as the former would be "live lunch!" The dithers need to have similar water chemisty; temperature; water flow etc. requirements.

I have one small female black convict cichlid and I really want to put black neon tetras or green tiger barbs. It's a 20 gallon long.

 

[onidrase]

This is very common practice, the tetras/barbs/livebearers act as "dither fish" for the cichlids, reassuring the cichlids that if there are fish playing above them happily, nothing dangerous is lurking nearby.

The trick is judging a good match of dither fish against the cichlid(s) in question, for instance you would not put a group of Beckford Pencilfish in with a pair of Oscar Cichlids, as the former would be "live lunch!" The dithers need to have similar water chemisty; temperature; water flow etc. requirements.

I have one small female black convict cichlid and I really want to put black neon tetras or green tiger barbs. It's a 20 gallon long.

Black neon tetras would be lunch. Green tiger barbs might be okay. Like I said before, you're limited to medium sized, wide bodied fish, if that. Convict cichlids are very aggressive. It's a hit or miss with them. I couldn't keep my female convict with anything, even in a 75 gallon tank.

 

[kuri33]

Man.. I think I'll try the barbs. How about danios? Do they grow medium size?

 

[onidrase]

Man.. I think I'll try the barbs. How about danios? Do they grow medium size?

Danios are too stream bodied to not get eaten. Giant danios would be alright, but are far too active for a 20 gallon tank.

When I say wide bodied fish, I mean fish like this or this, rather than this or this, which would all outgrow your tank or easily get eaten.

It's not just them being thick bodied either, as a convict, in my experience (and I've had my fair share of convicts) has enough battering power to kill fish they don't like but can't eat. The fish you get need to be as quick and boisterous as the convict. Which is why I recommended the fish I did before; tiger barbs, bleeding heart tetras, or black skirt tetras. All of these are still "maybes" but in my experience they've been relatively ignored by my convicts as long as they were there first. Even then sometimes my convicts would throw a temper tantrum and rip up any they could catch.

 

[kuri33]

I'm really glad you've tried it before. I would have hate to bought fish only to see them killed. But I'm going to follow your advise and try and get bleeding hearts tetras