# Dither fish with africans?



## shutterbug

I have a 55 with 1 Greshaki(Male),1 Kenyii(Male),1 Johanni(Male),1 Mutt Johanni (Not sure of sex), 1 unknown Peacock........All mature, except the johanni mutt.........Aggression is at a minimum.........Everyone has there own little territory........My question is are there any other schooling fish that i could add to these 5 that would be able to take the higher Ph and the aggressive nature of the Africans.......I plan on moving these fish to a 75 as soon as im done making the stand, maybe 3 weeks till the stand is done........Just looking for some experienced feedback


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## cichlidaholic

How big are the fish you already have?

Ps. acei school, although if you're going for an all male tank, you'd have to be careful adding a group of them.

I can't really think of any non mbuna schooling fish that would fare well long term in an established set up.


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## FishAreFriends

I would say to just add a few more fish if youd like. You are understocked for a 55 gallon and only to have 5 fish. Check out some of the cookie cutters (if they are still around on this site) for a mbuna tank. That will give you more options also. I would also be weary of the peacock, as all those fish you already have are/can be extremely aggressive and i would think the peacock will get the short end of this stick.


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## mainganio

i had some fish i don't know what they were. they were clear with a red tail mine only grew to about 5cm long. they went fine with my mbunas. but every fish has a different way of dealing with smaller or different fish that are added to a already established tank.


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## kb3781

I keep tiger barbs with my Mbuna. They school and none of the cichlids bother them at all. The cichlids don't even seem to aknowledge that they exist. I apologize ahead of time to all of the purist who are going to tell me they don't think it is right to have them in the tank.


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## Robchester_2000

black skirt tetras work really well for me, though i have Alto Comps, so less aggressive.


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## pmac

I was looking at tiger barbs yesterday, unfortunately they only had really small ones, so I'll have to check back or look for another place with some bigger ones.

I also like to find different fish to mix in with my cichlids as long as I can find some that get along with them. I've recently gotten a Pearl Gourami that my cichlids just ignore, he seems to be doing great in there and has no bite marks on him whatsoever. Keep in mind, the same day I got him, I also got a gold Gourami, and my Mbuna ate him in about an hour... No idea why they disliked him so much but don't seem to mind the pearl at all :?


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## lotsofish

I found this article some time ago and thought it sounded like an interesting idea:
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... lants.html


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## ashilli48

I've had tiger barbs work out too. Although they were more or less raised up with the cichlids. I would recommend with africans you mentioned but definitely CA or SA.

Also stay away from the "green" tiger barb. This is not natural, but injected with dye.


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## Taratron

Check out giant danios; they make good dither fish. But their fast movements might freak out your gourami.

I tossed some white cloud minnows in my multi shellie tank (pet store was out of healthy danios) and now the shellies are out en masse.


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## kodyboy

the "moss green" tiger barbs are not dyed, they have more black pigment that reflects green in certain light. There are many dyed barbs though, but I have not seen dyed tiger barbs.
I like rainbows as dithers and acceis, but acceis get fairly big. Giant danio are good too. I have also had luck with columbian (red/blue) tetras.


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## Lesley

I've had green tiger barbs in with my cichlids (yellow lab, red zebra, blue zebra, blue johanni, peacocks) for about a year. No problems whatsoever.


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## TrashmanNYC

Yellow Tail Acei are cichlids that act like "dither fish"........they are alway out and about (schooling, drawing out the others) swimming around the tank.......


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