Using "DITHER FISH" To Resolve Aquarium Shyness & Aggression

[@Bearskimethod]

You may not be a fish psychologist, but that was pretty much animal behaviorism 101 👍🏻 Great topic, it made a world of difference for my piranhas to ad the appropriate tank mates.. 👊🏻

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@MotörheadMickey]

No way!!! What did you add to the piris???

[@Bearskimethod]

Mickey Pius I placed a couple of sun fish from the creek and had to take the male out, they just started spawning, etc.. making a mess about of the tank.. the girl still in there.. 👊🏻

[@429fishing_on_yt]

@@Bearskimethod sunfish are quite personable fish. Can be agressive though. Reminds me of Cichlids.

[@mitch1933]

I subbed. Your tanks just look so good and clean.

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@catfishcave379]

Dithers and hiding spots - two of the secrets to fishkeeping.

[@dwsdarius]

Game changers!!!

[@cichlidkingaquatics5988]

That's the best explanation for dither fish I've heard yet

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@kevinpitts1252]

I'm commenting before I even watch this vid... I already know a dither fish can save lives! I've used then for years. All u need is a distraction!

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks, yes they helped so many of my tanks!

[@cichlidscape]

Sweet video mate👌🏻🐟 that’s one hell of a tank!🔥

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you, I can't wait for the fish to get some size!

[@rickrodriguez6675]

Dee thank you so much again for your time & video. 👍😎

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@danielleaurora9828]

Now, this is a great video!!! Absolutely stunning aquarium and nice music and a great subject matter.

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@nikkidian]

I think you deserve the fish psych title! Very thorough and well spoken. Excellent topic, new sub here! I have yoyo's and tiger Barb's with my yellow labs and cobalt Cichlids. 👍❤️

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@bluefin8087]

Hey man nice aquariums & videos you have. Your silver dollars don't eat the submerged roots in the tank?

[@dwsdarius]

They don't go for the roots, but if the leaves grow in the water they will destroy them

[@dbachelorsplantedaquarium4711]

Looks grea! Another awesome footage! Keep it up! :D

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@alejandromarquez9299]

All your tanks are amazing bro!!! Wish to have one day those dream fish tanks

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@ProtimAquatics]

What's up my Brother ! Terrific informations Bro ! I like how clean that tank is !👍😊 Super Bro !👍😊

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@IsabellaM._]

Great video,plus informative . Gives me a lot of ideas.

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@Brantov]

Interesting video, very nice fish.

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@Boogerboys1990]

Live substrates with father fish on KZbin maintenance truly balanced aquariums. Nice tank

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks!

[@AfricanCichlids]

Nice one darius, the dollars look really good too.

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you, I need more!

[@AfricanCichlids]

@@dwsdarius agreed, those barred ones are particularly nice

[@nolayaheardme402]

Perfect tank!

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@vincegolder4560]

Nice Aquarium!

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@irecruitfish7410]

Hey you got another arowana?! Nice!

[@dwsdarius]

Yes, growing nicely too

[@richardm239]

i love your tanks just wondering were the back ground came from, also off topic what does dws stand for ? not sure if you may have explained that before

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you, I bought the background from universal rocks.com. dws are my intials….Darius W. Stultz....before are started filming my tanks, that was my youtube name and everyone knows me for dws so I haven't changed it

[@dramaticexperiment144]

You got a new arowana Nice

[@dwsdarius]

Yes its about 7" with a nice appetite

[@dramaticexperiment144]

@@dwsdarius great

[@martynskipper2631]

Could I use Congo tetra with mesoheros gephyrus and silver dollars

[@dwsdarius]

Mesoheros gephyrus are very predatorial and will likely try to eat the congo tetra if they are too small. Silver dollars should do fine

[@cichlidstrainhunter3607]

Good one sir👍

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you!

[@GurpreetSingh-je8fz]

tiger barbs with sevrums will this work out ? ik barbs are know to nip i m gonna buy small ones and ma sevrums is less than 2 inch now as well

[@dwsdarius]

They should work together fine, just keep the tiger barbs in a large enough school and they should stay to themselves in terms of aggression

[@GurpreetSingh-je8fz]

@@dwsdarius group of about 7 for each sevrum ?

[@Dbales34]

Darius-- I have two 6/7inch Oscar and one 4inch in a 125..they got along great for months and even swam as a pack until recently I started to notice some aggression towards the smaller Oscar. I recently added 2 six inch kissing gouramis to try to buffer the aggression.. but now the smaller Oscar is harassing them. Any suggestions? Thought about putting him in a different tank for a couple days

[@dwsdarius]

Being 4" he's going to feel the need to assure his dominance over the gourami until he gets to a confident size. If you put him in a different tank, when you re add him to the main tank it could cause the 2 larger Oscar to harass him more. Do the gourami look over stressed? If not I'd leave them together and than in a month or so he'll grow large enough to establish his place above them. If it does look to stressful, you could try to separate him but it would have to be until he gets a little bigger

[@spidy278]

there's a lot of argument about this. Fish will come out not because of dither fish but because they are in big numbers now in the tanks when you add few

[@dwsdarius]

Good point, but debatable...my African cichlid tank was well stocked and they did a lot of hiding...I believe because the most dominate was skittish towards humans, so the rest followed his example

[@robertchongthu9183]

Love your tank scapping...are those rock real??

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you, yes they are

[@Micarmn]

Hi DWS. So I just put a severum and blood parrot in my tank. At first they were both shy and hiding always hanging around each other swimming etc. I decided to put two large abs pipes in so they have hiding place. Now they both want the same pipe and now the parrot fish is super aggressive whenever a fish swim next to his pipe? What should I do? I was thinking to just take the pipe out and just let them just get used to the exposure and adapt. Your thoughts? I have a 75 gallon and there’s also a geo, an angel, and two eba Please help!

[@dwsdarius]

The pipes will encourage more behavior, which brings more aggression. I would leave the pipe in the tank for a little while, the parrot just wants to establish dominance and it should last for a few weeks and once everyone knows that its his cave...his aggression should decrease a bit. I would move the pipe to a corner of the tank that doesn't get a lot of activity and place the other pipe some where more active. Overall with the pipes does the parrot hide all day or is he active around the pipe?

[@Micarmn]

DWSDARIUS FISH TANKS so far the parrot hides all day. If he sees sinking food fall in front of the pipe he is in he may peep out to grab food for a second. Just added giant danio per your suggestion and I think that helped the severum

[@numbers0660]

Any ideas for stocking a 75 gallon

[@VincentsReptiles]

Oscar

[@numbers0660]

oscar feed Thanks but I want to have a variety of smaller fish 2-4 inches Srry I should of specified

[@hanifprasetyo3818]

Severum n parrot fish

[@crazyfrog6724]

Anglefish and cardinal tetras

[@NotSure876]

Billy Bob Mbuna and syn. Catfish

[@robertoromero8053]

My discus acted like a dither fish for my ropefish. He used to hide constantly, now he comes out a lot more.

[@markfrederick4919]

My fish would wait for the light to go out and eat them

[@dwsdarius]

Yes that sucks, maybe you need dithers

[@markfrederick4919]

@@dwsdarius 🤦‍♂️

[@matthewzito6130]

I must be boring. I tend to keep dither fish as the main attraction. My four tanks include Giant Danios and five species of tetras with a single Ancistrus in each tank.

[@dwsdarius]

No they can be awesome show fish as well...my tinfoil barbs are going into my 210g and I think they are going to be the spotlight fish

[@VStag]

Awesome video Thanks for sharing FishFam NJAE19

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you

[@Ourfrenchiegirls]

What was the end result on the “wrong fish debacle”? Any word... did they send the right fish?

[@dwsdarius]

Nothing, no response...honestly I gave up on them too, I just excepted the loss and will never buy from them again

[@Ourfrenchiegirls]

Got it... I would do the same. Sorry! You do have gorgeous great fish though! Love seeing them.

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks!@@Ourfrenchiegirls

[@kathysaville4078]

For American cichlids i find tinfoil barbs, Silver dollars and bala sharks are the best.

[@Buttikoferiii]

Kathy Saville agreed

[@demay5581]

I have two Texas cichlids both are aggressive but there juveniles still. I'm thinking of adding dither fish. But are there other ways to limit aggressive behavior?

[@samantha19961000]

What kind of dither fish would u guyz recommend i have a very agressive wolf fish(aimara dont know the exact name) and 2 snake heads and 2 bichers the wolfish is been terrorising my best looking and biggest snake head and hes now hiding all the time i was think about adding a fish to spread the aggression but as you say i dont want the new punching bag so to speak to take away from the other fish any suggestions

[@dwsdarius]

Well it has to be big with those tankmates...perhaps spanner barbs

[@samantha19961000]

@@dwsdarius all the fish are stil quite young so i might be able to find a decent size for a good price and mature them to adult size all at once. my snakeheads are actualy quite friendly so to speak and most of the time they avoid a fight also i dont do live feeding all fresh frozen food i buy from the super market like fresh shrimp and tilapia wich i feed al the time and on occasions they get some fresh mussels i dont know ive they would really go and try and eat the fish i did have small chiclids whit my bichers for years and they got along fine ive anyone is gonna eat a fish it probably be the wolf but its ofc always possible they are all predator fish so im def gonna do some research on the barbs thanks for the suggestion

[@JoseRamirez-yd2gz]

Can I use convicts as dither? I have a bunch...

[@JoseRamirez-yd2gz]

Only want them as punching bags btw... my Severums and oscars aren’t shy

[@dwsdarius]

That would only work if you flood the tank with them. If you just have 4-5, they'll probably follow after your currenet fish and keep hiding...a larger group wouldn't be able or willing to hide (too much competition amongst them). Just keep in mind the effect they have on the bioload

[@charliekeller4972]

👍

[@mondraymondo]

I see severum i hit like

[@dododoang9051]

🐟99?....🤔

[@tonyblaze5186]

Basically what your saying is that you use silver dollars for bait fish

[@dwsdarius]

Yes