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I have a malawi tank with 3 yellow labs and 3 Aulonocara stuartgranti "Mdoka" Iwas thinking of adding 6 rainbows as dither fishand to make the other fish feel secure. Would there be any problems with this combination.

What size is your tank? Assuming you have the room, rainbows are the ideal tankmates for many of the rift lake species. I would select one of the larger, more robust species, such as Boesman, or splendida. I would probably avoid using the dwarf neon, or Mccullough(sic?), as they grow to only 2.5 to 3 inches. Most rainbows thrive in alkaline ph, but are extremely fast swimmers and probably would avoid injury. Your particular africans are relatively peaceful (as Africans go), and may not even acknowledge the existance of the rainbows, unless breeding. it is benficial that your africans can tolerate a higher protein diet compared to some of the other mbunas, like the zebras etc. Some of the mbuna can't tolerate frozen bloodworms and other foods that rainbows love, and could end up with Malawi bloat. But with the species you have , I think it would work out fine...

Unless you have an aggression problem, there's no need for dither fish....

Tank size plays a huge roll as mentioned....If i recall you have a 29g... which is not really big enough for the fish you have when spawning time comes......it may work but adding any other fish is likely to through of the balance your fish already have.

And lastly can I add that Mbuna should NEVER be fed bloodworms, no matter if they handle it well or not.
They are Herbivores, and such foods are far to high in protein for them... Brine shrimp is O.K. as a treat say once every wk. but NOT bloodworms.



Last edited by mr_cichlid at 27-Apr-2005 18:39

These rainbows would be a dither for breeding, since mine have started breeding. Another purpose is to make them secure. If the rainbows were out all the time then the cichlids would also go out and that would really help. Since I have tried socolofis, and now know they do not mix well with yellow labs. They were always out and the yellow labs would be hanging by the rocks but(at least) in my vision, and then I sold them back because they were too aggresive, and the yellow labs would never leave the rocks.

The species that I was thinking of was from the genus spledida, in my area I can always find this species cheap and fequent.

Last edited by Mr at 27-Apr-2005 18:55

yellow labs are not herbivores. they are omnivores.

yellow labs are not herbivores. they are omnivores.

yes! as well as the peacock cichlids mentioned in the original post.

my personal opinion: p. acei would be the best dithers if you had a large enough tank. if it is a 29 you may be out of luck. too small for most african setups. the fish will feel crammed in there and will hide all the time. the rainbows are good and will do the job in most cases, but it wond be worth the extra bioload in that small of a tank.
yellow labs and acei would be a decent combo, but maybe not in a 29g. i used to have 55g tanks and got rid of them becuause they just dont cut it. yes they work, but they arent great.

Just to let you know my cichlids have started spawning and I am currently incubating eggs from both species. So spawning has come.

What other species of fish would also be considered dither fish?

any fish that will stay near the upper water columnand not hide.
good dithers:
giant danios
rainbows
tiger barbs
p. acei (these are shoaling and will stay in the upper column if given a large enough tank)

For my convicts I use both Giant Danios and Boesemani Rainbows. Both are quite fast and keep the convits on their toes.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric