Dither Fish For 20G With Cherries

[MelBegin]

I am looking for a dither fish to reduce innate timidity in my Cardinal tetras.

I have a 20G set up with 9 Cardinals, 2 Corydoras, 3 Nerites, 2 Assasin Snails, and I intend to add a handful of Cherry Shrimps in the next week. The tank is medium planted with a large piece of Mopany.

I originally wanted a Betta; however, I do not want to lose all my Cherries and I believe a Betta will do too much damage on my Shrimp population.

I was thinking about Dwarf Gouramies, Honey Gouramies, or possible Killifish. Does anyone have experience with housing the above with Cherry Shrimp? Or perhaps another recommendation for a slower moving, docile fish that occupies the middle portion of the tank and that won't pose a threat to the Shrimp?

Thanks

[Fishnut]

If you were to put 1 dwarf gourami in that tank, it would work, but from my experience, they tend to be very quarrelsome unless they have a lot of space to divvy up into territories. 

Honey gouramis are FABULOUS little fish but I don't know if they would satisfy your need.  They are EXTREMELY shy fish themselves.  When they get comfortable with their surroundings, theyll come out a lot more but they're always picking around the plants and other decorations in the tank.  Mine don't tend to stay out in the open...they're more like in and out of the driftwood and java moss.
Ideally, killies should be kept in a species tank...or in a tank with other very quiet cool water fish.  There are some that will grow bigger but they're impossible to find in Ottawa.  I found mine in Toronto.  Most also need to be kept at cooler temperatures than cardinal tetras as well. 

I have several species of killies.  My Lamp-eye killies stay in the middle and are always swimming.  My Fundulopanchax Amieti is always hovering around the middle...occasionally hanging out in the pleco caves.  He's about 3", stunning colour but he's got an attitude.  When he was the largest fish in the tank, he was a bully...I think he ate a couple of White Cloud Mountain Minnows!  I added amano shrimp to the tank and he terrorized them.  Now he's with a 4.5" rainbow fish and a few other fish that don't put up with bullies, so he's mellow.  All my other killies hide.  In one tank, there is a pair of killies that I thought had died because I didn't see them for 2 months!  In another tank, I have a species tank with a pair of Aphyosemion Striatum Lambarene.  I only see them when it's food time.

Perhaps check out some of the dwarf rainbow fish.  Neon Dwarf Rainbows will be active but they stay in the middle of the tank.  You could put a group of 6 or so in that set-up without a problem.

One thing I noticed though, was that you have nerites in with assassin snails.  The nerites will become food for the assassins, so one of the species should be moved.

[Laura]

The species you list will all eat the cherries IMO, and I expect a gourami would hunt them. I kept small lampeye killies with mine, but they ate some too. Most fish will eat cherries except for the very tiny ones, which will still likely predate on the young shrimp, but may leave the larger ones alone.

I would likely go for a larger school of cardinals, and add more of the same species of cories which would be happy with a larger shoal.

[cdylnicki]

I see no issues with adding in a female blue/opaline gourami.  Aggression with females is not common, I had mine in a 15 gallon with neons/cherry barbs/guppies and a betta with no issues.

I am a manager at a petstore and can help you out (PM me for details).  We have a 14 day guarantee on our fish, so if you happen to get an aggressive fish, you are welcome to return/exchange for something else.  My goal is not just to make sales, but for you to have a happy fish tank!

Let me know if you want to try!

[MelBegin]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended up getting a small school of White Cloud Mountains from a good friend of mine. They are very outgoing fish and they stay out all the time. The Cardinals have become much less timid since I placed the White Clouds in the tank so they are working perfectly as dither fish.

I was originally aiming for a more middle tank oriented fish; however, the Cardinals seemed to enjoy their territory and I didn't want to take away from it.

Thanks again for everyone's input.