Do dither fish make discus "more active"

[Discusdude7]

I am wondering if adding 10-15 cardinals to my 120 will make the 5 discus I have in there "more active" and less skittish. Sometimes they will also spook when I come near. So will adding cardinals help them be more active and less skittish?

[Tazalanche]

If nothing else, they will be more active until all of the cardinals are eaten!

Seriously though, in the last 16 months, we bought well over 70 jumbo cardinals before giving up. A few would die off on their own in QT, but usually they died due to discus attacks. For some reason, the last 7 have been in the tank for over 6 months. Our suspicion is that when we added the endlers to that tank, the discus had easier prey whenever baby endlers "showed up".

Other people have had great luck with cardinals in their discus tanks.

[Elliots]

If you QT the Cardinals grow them out at the same time. I think it only takes a couple of months unless you buy Jumbo Cardinals.

[zimmjeff]

More discus or less tank. Jeff

[Discusdude7]

More discus or less tank. Jeff

So will adding say 5 more discus help?

[OC Discus]

What else do you have in your 120g? 5 discus might be understocked. 10-12 would definitely create more action and interaction.

[Discusdude7]

What else do you have in your 120g? 5 discus might be understocked. 10-12 would definitely create more action and interaction.

Water and discus. Nothing else

[evabug1]

I think adding more discus would be more effective than cardinals. Do you have anything inside the tank they can hide behind? I have some big sponge filters on each end that I think helps them feel more secure. Also I have my tank in a high traffic area.

[OC Discus]

I have one artificial tree stump, but they actually stay out in the open most of the time. Once they adjust to each other and get their pecking order in place they don't really need hiding places.


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[Ryan]

A group of 8 or so discus would be good without being too heavily stocked. High bodied tetras like lemons work well, too. Just be sure to quarantine them. You'd be amazed at the difference a dither fish can make. I have a few painfully shy species of cichlids and they settle down when I add things like tetras or livebearers. When they see other fish out and about, it seems to give them a sense of security and allows them to relax a bit.