Top Dwellers

[Davekyn]

Top dwellers:
Can anyone recommend some Top dwellers for my community tank?

The tank is full of placid fish such as neon’s, glow light tetras, bristle nose and corry’s.

Also the tetras a so placid they just seem to sit around doing nothing until feeding time. Should I introduce another school of (mid section) more active fish to give them more incentive to move?

 

[noncentric]

Maybe some hatchet fish or dwarf gouramis.

What is the size of your tank? How many of the other fish do you have?

Welcome to the forum.

 

[SerLunchbox]

Hatchet fish, Zebra Danios and Leopard Danios are a good starting choice. You may be able to introduce an african butterfly as well.

As for an inactive school, neon and cardinal tetras do best in schools of at least 20 or so and need a longer tank to be happy (gives them lots of swimming room)

 

[Jarred Darque]

I have african butterfly's wioth my angels I had a guppy in there once, its tail was getting torn up. dont know if that wasfrom the ABFs or the senegalus I had in there as well

The only time I have seen any agression with the ABFs is when my largest angel is at the surface feeding. the largest ABF may chase it away

 

[Menagerie]

We definitely need to know the tank size and numbers of current inhabitants. If there is room, my recommendation is white cloud minnows--little, hardy guys that flitter away in the upper 1/3 of the tank. I have 10+ for over a year and in that time they have survived two long distance moves. I didn't think I would like them as much as I do, but now I highly recommend them.

 

[Argblarg]

Yeah, my White Clouds are always right at the top, sometimes people don't even see them without ducking down.

 

[hsherman1986]

i love my silver hatchetfish. They are always at the top of the tank, and it is always interesting to watch them when I turn out the lights. They end up all over the place once those lights turn out. Very peaceful, and so far have outlived the rest of my fish. I have had at least one of each type of fish I have in my tank die through my last ick battle, but the hatchets lived through it, never got a spot on them. They will always be a part of my tanks.

 

[Davekyn]

Thanks for the info guys.

The tank is 4 foot (48-18-18) I got the wider tank as opesed to a standard size as I,m hopping the extra width may allow for morse suface area thus more fish.

How many Fish? ...mmmmmmmmmm I hate this question because I'm feeling guilty already

10 Neon Tetras
10 Glow light Tetras
6 Bristle nose (catfish)
5 corrys (catfish)
6 Rummy Nose Tetras ------------------ I bought Today as I could not resist.
5 Yo Yo loches ---------------------------- On order to help with snail population

I know it sounds like a lot and probably is; So I'll start making exscuses There is still plenty of room to swim about. I have heaps of airation. 11 of the fish are bottom drewllers and stay clear of the rest (cant vouch for the yo yo's yet, still on order but they sound really good) Basically the Tank is Mellow As with hidy holes that FAR exceed the number of fish. The birstle nose love it; they wont stop breeding. As soon as I introduced the 6 rummy nose tetras the neons got a bit of life about them. It was awsome to see again. The tank has anoobis plants growing off the aboundace of well placed drift wood situated dead centre, taking up 2 1/2 feet with plenty of room all they way around. I aslo have Java fern and a number of other potted varieties. I'm running an internal Bio Filter. The powerhead pump creates a current rebounding off the front left hand corner of the tank. The corrys despite what I,ve read love playing in this area as do the bristle nose (prefer thier homes on the current side) to a lesser extent. At the left front of the tank (Pump side) I placed a few rocks to make cave as well as break down the current on my low level plants. On the other side where the faom filter is I have left an open area to the same extent around the pump although as else where in the tank you will always see scraps of drift wood, rocks and low level logs littered (well placed) to give the baby bristlenose and big ones peace of mind and for the yo yo,s I,m yet to get. I expect mating habbits to be interupted with the intro of the yo yo's, but thats kewl. Oh yea, I have a slight brownish tinge in the tank. Ive used carbon stain removers but like having a little stain left over as it suits my catfish well and the neons + glowlight still shine healthally.

I think that covers the main aspect breifly. Let me know if you haver anymore question and by all means please do give advise. Mabey you guys could let me know how you tanks are set-up.

Basically I have now resigned myself to what I can see thus far a well stocked peacefull communtiy tank. (excluding the yo yo,s) Given the nature of the yo yo loach I dont think I will have much trouble.

Sorry if I've been raving on. I dont really know all that much but I love talking and learning about fish.
One thing is for sure, I have to stop adding fish. Take another look at the number of fish I have given above, consider the type of fish and my tank set-up and let me know what you think.

Now that I think about it I dont think I have room for top dwellers...DAMN!
White Clouds, Hatchet fish, Zebra Danios and Leopard Danios...They all have kewl names. Off to research them guys.
Oh yea, thanks for the welcome noncentric
Thanks guys.

 

[shaunakadub]

Picked up a Yellow Panchax (Killifish) the other day at the LFS. Not only are they top dwellers, thier body is shaped to be a top dweller. Very cool looking fish. Especially cool when he eats because he zips across the surface of the water, but doesn't make a single wake because of his body shape.

 

[Davekyn]

YellowPanchax
I'm not sure if that spieces of fish would mellow out in my tank with the neons. Sounds excellent for a top dweller. If in fact that the YellowPanchax is the most peacfull you can get, I still dont I have large enough Tetras at this point and I love my neons to much to trial it.
Killies are predominantly carnivorous (except for the pupfish)

The Below info I got from google kind of disheartened me:

Many killies have a deserved reputation for being pugnatious and in some cases equalling Bettas and Mbuna in their assertions of dominance over their rivals, sometimes even with fatal results. Some species' males will terrorize certain other fish (I had a large male Notho live peacefully with danios, but nearly killed a group of dwarf gouramis twice his size, another male Notho murdered my entire spawning group of lemon tetras). Stores simply can't afford to devote an individual tank to each species and a personal little domain for every male. Many stores crowd the fish, which works to mellow out cichlids, but only helps killies rip each others fins off.
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/killies.html

 

[kaz]

the golden wonder killifish is peacefull in my opinion, i use to have one with my neons etc in my 20g tank. the reason it died was because i drop some prime during water change and since this fish is a top dweller, I believe he took some in his system so be careful with all that stuff. big mouth too lol