TOP HALF OF TANK!

Can anyone tell me a really nice fish that stays around the top half of the tank its a community setup

Thanks


Mark

some hatchet fish are nice top water fish, some like the african butterfly fish, betta are your most common option, but personally i like half beaks in this position... thats my two cents
Seamus

African butterfly fish are great, I had 2 of em.

how big is the tank and what else do you have in there? any plants? they are the deciding factors for what you can have
here's some suggestions depending on your set-up:
danios are also ones for hanging around the surface, the pearl one is especially nice once fully coloured up and is slightly larger. danios need a fair bit of space for their size and can get nippy with slow fish if in smaller groups.
hatchets are interesting fish but get spooked and exit the tank very easily. tight lid needed! great for community of smaller fish.
butterfly fish are more interesting again, i was close to getting these but any nippy fish will have a go at it, and smaller fish will be seen as food.
archers are pure class come feeding time - great party piece - but will require a wee bit of salt in the water (mine do great with just 1 tsp per 10-15l) and can get big -> need big tank. they have to be bought in the group at the one time, any later additions or smaller ones will be bullied, and need live or frozen foods (mine have rarely taken cichlid surface pellets). if you have big (3"+) fast fish then they will be ok, provided you have the space for the archers and can meet their feeding requirements. drop the water level a bit, stick some wood going out the water and throw live crickets on it. just be ready to wipe the walls/ceiling/floor after!
halfbeaks are a fish i picked up as an impulse buy, now in the caring hands of JohnH. i had the wrestling halfbeaks, they are odd (=desirable to some) but stay smaller than the celebes so cant go with anything big at all as there's a fear they will be eaten. can be tamed, mine would take bloodworm out my hand and when catching them for sale i just picked them up in my hand and into the bag

so you see we need to know what you have, to asses what is best


EDIT: one last option is a gar fish... i'll leave you to google it

Depends what you have already.
I'm sure a full sized arowana would be great....it wouldn't complain of other smaller fish being in the way either

Of the ones, Hatchets are the best...especially if you get the maculatus hatchet (they are big and can look after themselves quite well).

Siamese fighters can often be the easy target for fast fin-nippers to have a go at.

What;w wrong with a few gouramis? Indian giant gourami (all 3 inches of them) would be good.

ian

a zebra danio with swimbladder issues?, hatchets and african butterflies would be my choice

Thanks for the replies everybody im just looking for something different and with a bit of colour.
i was looking at the gar fish in fff they dont really do much!
i cant go with the Hatchets because my tank hasn't got a lid

The tank is a 155 liter and at the moment iv got some L numbers in it with some blue acara's,rams,rummies,kribs, and a flying fox

I don't want to go down the danio/gouramis route

Maybe the half beaks are they hard to come by?


Thank You


Mark

Killifish?


Kev.

oooh yeah, killies are lovely! never kept them because of compatibility issues but seen plenty. add another zero to the size of your tank and then you could get a gar, some grow massive!

pics please!

You didn't mention the lack of a lid Mark.

Killifish sound really good thanks and sorry igmillichip I forgot about the lid


Mark

hi all

are killies not jumpers?
(im sure i read it elsewhere)


cheers

Yep. Many are not only jumpers (sure, I don't mean cardigans either), they are excellent escape artistes.

The best killifish to go with Blue Acaras would be a Blue Gularis as it is a big killie. BUT....goodness it will find gaps in a lid.

Hatchets, Butterfly fish etc are also great jumpers.

Looks like it may have to be gouramis Mark.

ian

wrestling halfbeaks didn't jump out on me but they were with rasbora and neons