South American dither suggestions?

[mistahoo]

My Exodon tetras are getting more aggressive and I don't have enough of them to disperse aggression. No clue what happened, but I won't be able to get anymore of these guys until next year. I'm looking for some dithers that can withstand constant bullying and scale eating. Also something that doesn't eat plants is a must! I also want to stick to my South American biotope. Anybody have some suggestions?

[mnemenoi]

Larger Silver Dollars could work, they can certainly take some abuse. Leporinus are larger and could take it, probably more of a target fish though. Hemiodus are cool, but I'd hate trying them as dithers as they are pricey. Flag Tailed Pricholodus could work out, though same issues as the Hemiodus.

[mistahoo]

I would try silver dollars, but they'd shred up my plants. Not sure if the others you mentioned will eat plants, but I've always like those flag tail pricholodus

[mnemenoi]

Indeed, had zoned on the plant issue, lol. I have read about successfully keeping them with Leporinus. There are accounts of them shredding a pnk tailed Chalceus, and its usually a go to species. A few actually had decent success keeping them with Pimelods, so thay is another option. They expected it to fail and were actually surprised at how well they actually did with them. It was spotted Pictus cats if I am remember correctly. I imagine some of the 4 lined pictus would fare better as they are sizier, but more difficult to find.

[Andrew_B]

Giant Danios. Fast, Dumb, and hearty. Cheap, and still nice looking. With them breeding in the plants, can provide the tank with natural food too. At least it would be a good fish to try out as dithers to see if it even helps at all with aggression

[mistahoo]

Giant Danios. Fast, Dumb, and hearty. Cheap, and still nice looking. With them breeding in the plants, can provide the tank with natural food too. At least it would be a good fish to try out as dithers to see if it even helps at all with aggression

Would they be able to withstand constant beatings? I feed these 2-3" frozen fish and they shred it like nothing.

[mistahoo]

Indeed, had zoned on the plant issue, lol. I have read about successfully keeping them with Leporinus. There are accounts of them shredding a pnk tailed Chalceus, and its usually a go to species. A few actually had decent success keeping them with Pimelods, so thay is another option. They expected it to fail and were actually surprised at how well they actually did with them. It was spotted Pictus cats if I am remember correctly. I imagine some of the 4 lined pictus would fare better as they are sizier, but more difficult to find.

I've got Cories in there with them. The Exodons killed one when I added them. After that, they don't mess with the Cories. I guess it was too much work for them to get anything out of the cories.

[Andrew_B]

I don't think the Exodons could even catch a danio. In a 210g, they could really jet around the tank. Get a school of like 20 of them. You can probably buy 3"+ ones for just a couple bucks each

[Andrew_B]

Some guy uses them in piranha tanks

[mistahoo]

They seem fine in a piranha tank, but what about an exodon tank? Piranhas aren't as aggressive as exodons, piranhas are more skittish, and they're much slower as well. They're two different fish. I'll consider them, but I want to find something that's South American first.

[myjohnson]

Will apistos heard the tetras?

That might keep them busy a bit if they do.

[mistahoo]

Will apistos heard the tetras?

That might keep them busy a bit if they do.

No clue. That would be very interesting. I think I may try it to get this tank into more of a biotope. With that being said, I just picked up 6 Astyanax bimaculatus. Very good dithers so far! Very aggressive too! If everything works out, I'll be picking up some more of these bad boys next week.