Ideas For Fish For The Top Of My Tank Required :)

[LoachLover!]

I have a 55 gallon planted community which I love. All is peaceful, however there is one thing missing. I have pretty much no life at the top of the aquarium. All of my fish live in the bottom half, meaning that I have no activity at the top at all. The only one is a solitary angelfish.

In my tank I have:

1 x Angelfish
11 x Bleeding heart tetras
8 x Three lined cories
10 x Kuhli Loaches
6 x Zebra Loaches
2 x Bolivian Rams
2 x Bristlenose plecos
4 x Ottos

It may seem pretty stocked, but the tank is planted, has ample room on the bottom for all the bottom feeders to co-exist nicely and I still have soooo much room in the top of the tank.

I have no problem with filtration. I have more than enough. I have an external filter rated for 600L and then I have a fluval U4 internal, so ample filtration. I do 30-40% PWCs each week.

I NEED something at the top! I have some requirements:

I want shoaling species
They need to be big enough not to fit in my angel's mouth when he is fully grown
I would like them to stay at the top as much as possible and to not overcrowd the bottom section.

I have narrowed it down to these:

Rummynose tetras
Harlequin Rasboras
Danios of some kind

I am open to any other suggestions. Basically, what are your favourites and why? Please post your favourite shoaling fish for the top region of the tank so I can make a decision on it I am struggling to decide!!!

 

[Tuxyu3]

Harlequins and Danio's will most certainly not stick to the top of the tank IME, unsure about the Tetra's

 

[r.w.girard]

Pencilfish. But I don't think you will have luck with the rasboras or the tetras as top-of-tank fish.

 

[LoachLover!]

oh ok. Thanks. Would they be Beckford's Pencilfish? Any other alternatives to the species I mentioned?

 

[KevM]

Angels tend to make Pencilfish disappear...

 

[greenmumma141]

I would suggest another angel or maybe 2 more. Its so pretty to see a small group of angels swimming together

 

[JenJ]

I would suggest another angel or maybe 2 more. Its so pretty to see a small group of angels swimming together

Sorry to butt in, but if you do decide to have another 2 angels, I have 2 that need rehoming. I was going to take them into my lfs at the weekend but if you want them... I'm in Surrey...

 

[Tuxyu3]

Would definitely not recommend adding two more angels, at least one would pretty much end up dead in a lot of cases.

 

[greenmumma141]

Would definitely not recommend adding two more angels, at least one would pretty much end up dead in a lot of cases.

just even numbers with angels?? i was not aware. i had 3 for the longest, but my 2 black angels were very peaceful buggers thanks for the correction!

 

[Tuxyu3]

Angels are strange, you can never be sure but it is always better to have just a single, a pair or a large(ish) group.

 

[LoachLover!]

Ok, so based on that, should I add just one more angel to avoid any problems with a trio?

 

[LoachLover!]

I guess 4 angels would be too much with the fish already in the tank?

 

[Mort75]

what about maybe some marble Hatchet fish. they look great and are a top swimmer

 

[JohnCS]

Celebes Halfbeaks

Nice fish, don't grow big at all, around 3" maybe a little more. Carnivorous so make sure to feed them frozen/freeze dried or even better,live food.

Marbled Hatchetfish

Need to be kept in decent sized groups, carnivorous again so you should feed them similar foods. they don't get any bigger then about 2.5"

 

[greenmumma141]

even the silver hatchetfish are neat!