I definitely don't advise anyone wanting a surface dwelling fish not to have a lid, it is guaranteed crispy fish rather than fish with a slight headache.
There are alternatives to hatchets but hard to say without knowing tank stats but off the top of my head:
-Hatchets
-Pencil Fish (Beckford and Hockeystick are most common around here but there are loads of really stunning species!)
-Chela dadburouri (in their own group they are like a cross between a danio and a hatchet, they are small, yellow with blue dot/stripe danio shaped but with the upturned pectoral fins like a hatchet... completely mild mannered but fairly energetic).
-Guppies (for the most part, they tend to spend more time at the top)
-Gouramis (honey gouramis are great and do well in groups as well as pairs, opaline or gold if you have a m/f pair and the space, likewise for pearls etc, croaking, thicklipped gouramis don't tend to spend time near top and now do dwarf gouramis really).
-Halfbeaks (loads of different species around!)
-Penguin Tetras (personally wouldn't keep them in groups of less than 10 as they can get narky).
-Rainbow fish (only referring to the tiddlers like Threadfin Rainbows, Forktail Rainbows, Signifer or Getrudes Rainbows etc)
-Fighters (doesn't have to just be a B. splendens, there are lots of species!)
-Danios (of course they do need much lower temperatures so might not be advisable, exceptions to swimming near the top are Glowlight Danios, they don't tend to).
-Microrasbora (Most of the tiny micros shoal just under the surface, especially if you have floating plants).