tiger barb massacre

So i got 5 new lil dovii all under 5cm and they where all so shy and decided to get some schooling dither fish that where quick and quick durable to help bring them out of there shell.
bought 12 large tiger barbs between 3 and 5cm and it worked great on day 1. Have lost 8 in 4 days, can not believe how quick the dovii are able to kill and eat fish that are about the same size as them and how ruthless they are, was expecting loses but not at this rate, and i hate seeing fish die.
So next question what fish to try next, need to be super sonic fast, cheap and around 8cm and not be agro either.
anyone seen Kevlar covered barbs.
options i am thinking of to resell once dovii get over 12cm
tinfoil barbs but they aint cheap
hi fin pang catfish but scared of there huge size and resell ability
silver dollars really do not like these fish
rosy barbs available at nice size and cheap but do not look quick enough

feed back please
regards Mark

 

Eish.... So it was just snack time for them...... Only fish I can think of is tinfoils so sorry on that front..... They work for me and they grow at the same rate as most of my guys. So they have become long term members in my tank... Maybe try some convicts of the same size?

 

real not keen on other cichlids, do not want to risk a war in fights over the same resource, prefer the massacre idea as dovii are rather valuable both in price and how hard they where to get hold of
rate i may just have to shell out for tinfoils, how much are they and anyone seen small ones

 

in the past i used giant danios as cichlid dithers very successfully...

 

will look into thanks
still a lil awe struck thou how nasty these guys are, seen agro cichlids kill fish often but never kill and eat as quick as this

 

good luck!

 

Tinfoils give up the fight very fast when actually taken on by a Cichlid. As dithers they are fine because they just cause confusion rather than getting in scraps but against your monsters I dont see them lasting more than a day.

A large synodontis will be able to take them on for a few months but they are not very active so it may not have the desired effect. I think whatever you try will essentially become food anyway so it doesnt really matter what you go for.

 

agreed but food in a month better than food in a day i guess

 

WOW those are hectic fishes, do you still have the 4 Tiger barbs left? I will take them of you if you want to get rid of them.

 

reedfish i know this well trust me been breeding cichlids for 20 years
have never had fish like these thou, killing a fish that is larger than them and eating it at a rate of 2 a day
trust was not threw lack of knowledge that i am where i am,
kept midas, red devils, jags, convicts, jack demsey, texas, fredi, montages, green terros and flower horns bred them all
just nothing like these guys

 

My biggest dovii which I suspect to be a male has taken over the whole helicopter ornament.

 

considering that these guys have started eating voracioslyy it would be advisable not to go the dither fish way and continue with conventional foods

 

Fish that come 2 mind when thinking about slightly bigger fast moving fish are Giant Danios like lep2soma said, Buenos Aires Tetras and Scissortail Rasboras. Normal pearl/zebra danios are also very fast, but they are small. You can also maybe try and get some thick bushy plants for the fish to hide in when they are being chased?
How fast are the Dovii's? If they are ambush predators, rather than chasing fish, then I don't think any fish that are not bigger then them will survive.

 

only two preconditions with the giant danios:
they have to be adults
they must be in a school of at least seven
good luck!

 

blue kurpers

 

Also owning dovii. I can say that if you keep these fish alone they will kill each other and cost alot of money aswell as destroy one of the few in the country. So the barbs were used to disperse anger not as food. And I even know @top dog will never put a plant in his tank hahahaha. Good luck man

 

Been watching the tank for about a hour, the dovii are mad quick, do not think much is going to out swim them, think best option is no dithers and hope they do not kill each other, not keen on them getting used to live food at all, want pellet trained dovii. Still amazed buy these guys ability to kill, makes my jags and Midas look like puppy dogs.
if I see aggression between the 5 dovii towards each other recon I will investigate further but fulling a tank with food that swims just seems cruel

 

@top dog:
please post video?
I love cichlids, but never had the cahoonas to get dovii!