40 Gallon Tank Dither Fish for Breeding Bolivian Rams?

[Zeaqua85]

Hi all! I decided to set up a new breeding project for some Bolivian Rams that I borrowed from one of my community tanks. I’m planning on adding some dither fish, as Lowell’s Fish slab on YouTube recommended. He used emperor tetras, and I would like to use either Cory cats or Black neons, ideally something that might occasionally spawn in the same tank. Let me know if either of those would work, if you would recommend something else, or if I should just ditch dither fish all together.

 

[Fishfur]

No bottom dwellers will work as dither fish for bottom breeders like Rams. If the Rams are spawning they’ll harass the cories far away from the site and stress them out.

You need fish that stay in the middle to top layers of the tank for this project and if you want them to spawn too, they’d have to be a species that is likely to spawn in similar conditions as the Rams will require.

Some pencilfish would make good dither fish or the more peaceful small tetras would work but I could not say about spawning. But any egg scattering species might come into conflict during spawning if the Rams are guarding a nest.

Harlequins spawn on the underside of leaves so they might be worth looking into. T.hengeli or T.espei are both small, active and attractive.

 

[Hellfishguy]

I’ve had Beckford’s pencils and Emperor Tetras produce fry which grew up alongside young Apistogrammas in tanks containing a good amount of Java moss and water sprite. I also use cardinals as dithers but they’ve never spawned for me.