What Are Dither Fish?

Imagine you’re a fish for a second. You’re small, you’re scared, and you’re easy and delicious (to other fish) to eat. You probably wouldn’t want to come out of your home unless you had to. Great survival strategy, really, it is – but it makes for a bad aquarium display. You would make a terrible pet. 

Suppose for a second you’re the same scared fish, only this time you had some fish out in the open around you. They wouldn’t be out in the open if there were predators around – and there they… are out in the open. Seeing them tells you there’s nothing around that’s going to eat you. At least not something that will eat you before it eats them, anyway. Since the movement of shoaling fish (or in more rare cases in freshwater schooling fish) attract more attention and risk predation than you – as one lone fish – ever could.

More apt to come out now? Me neither. I’m an indoor fish, myself. But it works for actual fish. 

Dither fish are those fish that tell scared, skeptical, or otherwise easily spooked fish that it’s safe to come out. When they’re not around, they know it’s time to hide. Some fish like having dither fish around, but other fish need them around otherwise they may not even come out to eat and will – literally – stress themselves to death. Some of the latter types are kribs and some apistos. Although most dwarf cichlids will certainly appreciate the addition of dither fish.