Looking for Dither Fish

[Raptor72]

Looking for some Dither Fish that will school and make my other fish more comfortable with their surroundings. I've done the blue/green chromis, cardinals, anthias and fire fish. I was wondering if there was anything else out there that owners have had good results with and catches the eye also. I was thinking something that could be kept in a group of maybe 4-6.

In my 125 currently there is a blue tang, sailfin tang, 2 clowns, Kole tang and a striped goby along with the CUC.

 

[brettinteriors]

I had to look up dither fish. To me you have covered the peaceful school/shoal fish that would fit in a sub 300 gallon or so tank. Ie yellow tang school. I have bar gobies that stay together but the hide a lot under a rock. I have yellow tail damsels as a filler kind of fish. They don't school but are neat. I have about 8 and each has its little area it stays in. I keep a school of 5 firefish and a evansi anthia trio. I wish I had the room for a yellow tang school. Well maybe when the kids grow up:beer:

 

[aquaph8]

Have you considered anthias?

 

[Raptor72]

I've tried Anthias before. First, I was told that a 125 was too small for 1, much less 3 or 4. Second, I found out about their finicky diet and having to feed them meaty food several times a day. My work schedule wouldn't allow me to feed them throughout the day. I have an auto feeder that will feed up to 4 times a day, but just dry food.

 

[SushiGirl]

A harem of flasher wrasses might work.

 

[scubabum1983]

I tried anthias before, same issue with the feeding schedule as my shifts are 24 hrs at a time. I'm hoping I can get away with building a substantial acartia pod culture in tank, as well as live food feeding a couple times a week, frozen foods the rest of the time I'm home. I've had better luck lately with Chromis survival rates by accident, I have a sea Lilly that I have been tending to, and the food size that the Lilly likes is similarly sized to what the Chromis eat. I think half of the Chromis issues I have faced are starvation related. With more frequent smaller food sized feedings (sub brine shrimp adult size) my Chromis have never looked better, they school, and spend a tremendous amount of time out in open tank water.

 

[Raptor72]

I could see the correlation between the Chromis dying and starvation. They were the busiest moving fish in my tank when I had them. Maybe I'll try them again and bump up the feedings.

 

[Raptor72]

A harem of flasher wrasses might work.

I thought about it, but it's always so difficult to find females. I tried forever with the McCosker's with no luck.

 

[SushiGirl]

Maybe try Carpenter's. That's what I had years ago, back when they were $24.99/each & no one knew what they were LOL. There are lots of different kinds, or even fairy wrasses (sorry, know nothing about those).