Dither fish for shellies?

[bellapoison]

I have a couple of tanks of multies now (I left a breeding trio in one tank and moved the rest to another).

One of the clerks at Boutique Pet Shop mentioned that she used either platies or celebes rainbowfish as dither fish with her multies.

Does anyone have experience with using these dither fish or others in your shellie tanks? I'd like to add some more movement and interest with higher-swimming fish, but I don't want to add something that will freak out the multies or eat fry.

[biggin]

Pretty much any fish given the opportunity will eat fry.

The I would think the PH would be little high for a rainbow, especially a dwarf rainbow the only one I would put in with the Multie.

[kewlkatdady]

I have rams, priscella tetras, and red eye tetras in with my brevis. There are no issues.

I don't buffer the water as the none of the fish are wild caught so they are already acclimated to my regular ph.

I was getting bored with the tank also so I added these to have more movement in the upper levels of the tank.

[misplacedsooner]

i keep mine as a species tank only.
mike

[laurelty4]

I have heard of people keeping guppies with theirs. Rainbows can be used, especially since you can acclimate celebes to slightly brackish water conditions with higher PH. but like someone else already posted, I would only maintain in a species tank without any other fish if you plan on raising alot of fry. most will be consumed by the dither fish, especially a quick rainbow.

[lellison]

I think my male would tear a guppie to pieces when there is fry. maybe not in a big enough tank though. Mine are in a tank by themselves.

[cichlid-dave]

How big is the shellie tank and what kind of shellies?