Need Ideas For Top Dwellers

[Iron Man]

I changed over from goldfish back to a live plant tropical community scenario (55 gallon) recently and its stocked so far with;

5 dwarf neon rainbows

10 neon tetras

8 aeneus cories

8 ghost shrimp

My plans are to get a couple more rainbows, a few more neons and get some (12?) harlequin rasboras.

I only have one problem.....I don't have a top dweller. I thought of guppies but I don't have a cover right now (which my change soon) and they jump out, as well as hatchet fish.

What gouramies can I add to this community without any problems? I've heard dwarf and honey gouramies...is that all?

Any other ideas for civil minded top dwellers?

 

[Dany]

danios, hatchetfish?

 

[Saedcantas]

^Danios and hatchetfish are both known "jumpers"

There's the Sparkling or Croaking gouramis to consider aswell

 

[smmetz]

My fish database only has 59 fish in it so far, but I search for "top" in "area of water occupied" yielded 8 results.

http/www.aquariumdatabase.com/query

5 of the 8 results are livebearers, since I already entered all of them from the fish index here.

I personally love to watch my zebra danios, they are quite active and fun to watch, and stay near the top most of the time.

 

[Iron Man]

Livebearers are not my types of fish I've found out, with the acception of guppies.

Zebra danios are out as well as their constant psychopathic random darting drives me up the wall, and are jumpers as said before like the hatchetfish.

Will look into the types of gouramies mentioned.

Thanks for the replies so far!

 

[fishfishfish]

harlequin rapboras are a strict top water fish

 

[Phillip.M]

my harlequin rasboras are only on the top like 25% of the day..

i would go with danios or hatchetfish likie the ppl said above

 

[dwarfgourami]

I'd go with a trio of honey gouramis; sounds like you want a peaceful, slow-moving tank, and then gouramis are certainly a better bet than danios. Dwarf gouramis seem to be having a lot of health problems atm, the ones I see in the shop all look very frail. I am planning pearl gouramis for my next tank, but it's too early in the morning to work out whether you'd have the space for them in yours.

 

[demonmagus]

may sound silly but what about an African butterfly fish?

 

[Saedcantas]

I agree with Dwarf about many of the dwarf gouramis coming in looking just plain ill, if not already with a belly full of parasites or dropsy even! (yes we had a whole batch arrive in the later stages of dropsy...)

Honey gouramis are a personal favourite with me go with some of those B)

(p.s: Here's my gertrude, see how lovely they are!)

 

[dwarfgourami]

I agree with Dwarf about many of the dwarf gouramis coming in looking just plain ill, if not already with a belly full of parasites or dropsy even! (yes we had a whole batch arrive in the later stages of dropsy...)

Honey gouramis are a personal favourite with me go with some of those B)

(p.s: Here's my gertrude, see how lovely they are!)

oooh, that is one beautiful fish!

 

[Iron Man]

Yea that's what I want exactly....a peaceful slow moving tank. In fact the neon rainbows in there now are so skittish I don't know if they're going to work out.....they didn't turn out to act like I thought they would. All the other rainbows I've seen were slow moving/schooling tank cruisers. These guys are missiles that dart into the plants at a drop of the hat....for nothing sometimes. I may just replace them with the rasboras that way I'll have room for more than a couple top dwellers.

Yea that is one beautiful fish....I like honey gouramis a lot.....you're making my decision easier.

Also....the carnivorous butterfly fish would be way out of the question.....I got neons and shrimp in here.

 

[AMS]

Any species of pencilfish would be ok, also Im surprised no one has mentioned guppies.

 

[dcj38]

Id go with dwarf gouramis, as my dentist office has a 30 gallon hex with 3 of them and they make a great addition to the tank, along with the neon tetras and the cory cats.

 

[Iron Man]

Well....I actually found the honey gouramis in a local Petsmart of all places! I didn't think I'd find these as I've never seen them in person before but there they were.....and they had just come in and been let out the bag. I got four of them.

They're doing great and everything....but they don't stay near the top.