# Suggest top dwelling schooling fish for a warm medium hard tank



## sciencefiction (20 Nov 2016)

Hi All,

I want to get a big school of smallish fish that do school together and stick to the top area of the tank, ideally not skittish ones...and something interesting....Also, not jumpers because it's an open top tank but there's a 13cm distance between the top of the tank and the water surface, plus a plastic lip of about 3-4 cm around the edge...

The tank is a round tropical pond of around 735l with current inhabitants 8 clown loaches, 9 denison barb fry and 5 SAE fry. When these grow it will be my max but none of them are top dwelling fish and a bunch of smaller top dwelling fish as dithers should do well as they'll have their own area. The water is 60cm high.  The clown loaches have never attacked any fish longer than 1cm. They ignored platy fry for years(wish they didn't) so everything is safe as long as they are suitable to the conditions. I prefer if they live at least a few years, not just a year and a half...providing I don't kill them in a different way 

The water is medium hard. The temperature is between 25-26C. The tank is planted below and above the water, still in the process of planting and growing...There are crypts, anubias, floaters and emersed plants so far.


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## dean (20 Nov 2016)

sciencefiction said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I want to get a big school of smallish fish that do school together and stick to the top area of the tank, ideally not skittish ones...and something interesting....Also, not jumpers because it's an open top tank but there's a 13cm distance between the top of the tank and the water surface, plus a plastic lip of about 3-4 cm around the edge...
> 
> ...



Top living species all jump that's their escape mechanism 
With the exception of the guppy whose tail is too heavy for it to jump 

Or there's any of the rasboras or devario species or you can go with something unusual like these 

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pseudomugil-furcatus/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sciencefiction (20 Nov 2016)

Thanks dean. The forktail rainbows were my initial idea and I almost got them a couple of weeks back.  I had them before... I wanted to check out something different that could be suitable...


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## zozo (20 Nov 2016)

I think you kinda expect the impossible.. The fish sp. you are refering to are the superior mouth sp. They are addapted to stay close to the surface and focus on it to get there food, hence their mouth is designed for that. Since they are schooling/shoaling whatever, there will be a kind of food agression/competition.. This means if some is spotted usualy more fish spot the same at the time, they race to get to it the first and can result in a jump. SO actualy all of them are potential jumpers..


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## zozo (20 Nov 2016)

Oh i might add, what kinda prevents them from jumping is a very dense surface vegitation like salvinia. Then they would have to jump through this vegitation, it kinda blocks the passage.. But what good will that be in your pond like kinda setup, in an open top aquarium you still have the fun of the glass front panel, but seeing from above you would only see plants.


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## sciencefiction (20 Nov 2016)

zozo said:


> The fish sp. you are refering to are the superior mouth sp.



Well...I have/had platies for years. They are surface feeders and spent ages sucking up biofilm on the surface but they don't jump. I was sort of thinking there are other species like that, just not platies again 

I think its going to be difficult for fish to jump out of the tank, at least I think it will not be easy for a small fish... see the distance between the surface and the top....


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## zozo (20 Nov 2016)

Just run the database and look for the superiour mouth sp. you'll find plenty of them. Boraras, rasboras, danios, hatchetfish etc. The other thing is, something less obvious in an aquarium again because of a glass front panel you see them mainly from lateral view. But all of them have this defensive camouflage strategy of a dark colored back, so seeing from above they are pretty good camouflaged. Since you are asking for something interesting, choices will be rather difficult.


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## sciencefiction (20 Nov 2016)

zozo said:


> Since you are asking for something interesting, choices will be rather difficult



Everything is interesting to me...Sorry for not expressing myself better but I've mostly kept bottom dwellers and livebearers so to me "interesting" is pretty much about everything out there...

Also, they do not need to be strict surface feeders, just fish that occupy higher levels of the water, no matter how they feed.  The current fish I have mentioned above swim close to the substrate 80% of the time from what I am noticing so far....The SAEs haven't shown interest in prepared foods but the denison barbs seem to be catching the food as it falls just below mid level and won't venture above for floating food.... I remember the forktail rainbows never explored below mid level much, even for food but weren't stuck to the very surface of the water, explored all mid to top level, had it to themselves really,,,,They ate either falling food or floating food, whichever...So they are suitable but maybe there are others like that I haven't kept...,


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## sciencefiction (20 Nov 2016)

zozo said:


> Just run the database and look for the superiour mouth sp. you'll find plenty of them. Boraras, rasboras, danios, hatchetfish etc.



I was hoping suggestions from personal experience where possible. I am good at researching but what's written out there doesn't always translate to reality....
A lot of "jumping" small fish are kept in small/shallow CO2 enhanced tanks....ideal conditions for jumping...I had 3 open top tanks, and the 4th had an opening area of around 20cm witdth at the front length wise where fish could jump out and 99% of the "jumpers" I've had were snails walking out...not fish..and those that jumped were in quarantine, newly purchased and still adjusting....

 Kuhli loaches are known jumpers and I've had them for about 4 years in open top tanks without any jumping out....I know its never too late... but just saying fish jump for a reason..


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## zozo (20 Nov 2016)

I would suggest a large school Ember Tetras.. Of all the sp. i kept over the years, they look the best from above imho, not realy top dwelling but very good vissible. I bet there are more i do not have experience with..

But it's a bit a rule of nature, top dwelling fish are the ones looking for food at the surface.. And about all i know have a rather dark back ridge to camouflage.. I have several boraras and from above i just can not say what is what.. Even have a few African - Aplocheilichtys normani - with the neon blue eyes in there and from above i only have the size to determine the difference, the neon eye is not realy showen from above. They all look black or kinda dark from above.  The ember tetra is one that stands out from that, it looks ember from all sides..


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## alto (20 Nov 2016)

Those  _9 denison barb fry and 5 SAE fry_ are going to get big (& fairly fast given the large water volume etc)
- I don't know how opportunistic the denisonii will be, but an adult SAE cleared out the baby swords ... only at night etc, never saw him (her?) display any unsavoury interest during the day time hours ...
 just realized a few weeks later that there were no baby swords, no fry, no juveniles 

As the SAE was the only change, removed him & the baby swords came back again  (new ones obviously)

I'd look for triangular tetra shapes (Black Phantoms) or something bigger like Congo's (though read through Pedro Rosa's journal first) & other larger tetras


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## Smells Fishy (23 Nov 2016)

My LFS guy said to me the other day that the majority of fish are jumpers. My personal experience of jumpers is female bettas and a cichlid I can't remember the name of. As you said fish jump for a reason, most likely for food or their fed up of the water quality. 

Hmmm fish. You could try emperor tetra, I bet they would look nice in numbers or lamp eyes, upside down catfish or how about just male Guppy's, they'll be easy to see 

Sent from my XT1021 using Tapatalk


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## zozo (23 Nov 2016)

Smells Fishy said:


> My LFS guy said to me the other day that the majority of fish are jumpers.



Yes they are, because their are many arguments to find why a fish could be triggered to jump if you think of it. And in a small confined space where they olny have a few feet of space till they reach a vertical wall it is even more likely to occur.

Possible arguments to think of are food competition, mating competition, hierachical competition, parasite irritation, bad water quality stress and irritation, geneticaly inheritet behaivor like descendance of the lungfish like corys and otos which still occasionaly gulp for air, or fish chased around because others are breeding and show maternal defence behaivor, General territorial behaivor/agression, Panic e.g. strong and bright lights switched on suddenly above the tank in a very dark room. Etc. 

Quite a few things to think of and take into consideration and research before seting up an aquarium and sellecting fish for a community tank.


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## sciencefiction (23 Nov 2016)

I think that there arent many natural jumpers...only those adapted to jump when their pools of water are drying up... To simulate the dry season in aquariums we stop water changes and overfeed to bring the water quality down. If one keeps the water conditions like that constantly...fish are going to think they need to "move on" somewhere else. 

Corydoras and otos in nature stay in the drying up pools because they can tolerate low oxygen conditions unlike others, and in fact they also dont jump out from open top aquariums either, despite their habit of shooting to the surface for air. If they do jump..its extremely uncommon..

I think jumping is mostly due to water conditions and insufficient space in the tank for the fish to create a life for itself...e.g. overcrowding, overexcitement in small tanks with no room to swim, blind fish, etc...Of course all are  capable of jumping...


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## alto (23 Nov 2016)

I though chocolate gouramis were good (as in powerful for their size) jumpers .. turns out Vaillanti are much more efficient  
- they don't swim away from the net but leap


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## sciencefiction (24 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> I though chocolate gouramis were good (as in powerful for their size) jumpers .. turns out Vaillanti are much more efficient
> - they don't swim away from the net but leap



My new clown loach leaped out of the water from my small tank when I tried to catch him with the net.  But the tank is 30cm tall...That's the third clown loach that jumped out of this tank, all while in quarantine. But I kept my loaches in large half open and fully open tank for years, and none jumped out while in big volume of water....not yet... So I think it depends on the size of the tank a lot.  They just need room to swim away and to swim vertically.

A lot of tanks are very shallow for fish...When I was trying to buy a plastic pond, most sold were between 30 and 40cm heighy despite having a long diameter....What fish can feel comfortable in such shallow tanks providing they were aimed at large fish too....If you look around, most jumping accidents are from shallow tanks...because otherwise even if you corner them with a net, they simply swim downwards and away from you....Very hard to catch a fish in a deep and long enough tank... So fish can be known jumpers but they don't necessarily need a closed tank if given the water volume.

My large clown loach sometimes accidentally got his tail above water, not judging the height of the water when swimming up and down the glass, and that's when I kept him in my last tank which had 45cm height only, totally unsuitable for a fish of this size and behaviour.  He was previously in a 65cm tall tank, now in 60cm but I can increase the water level one day...I hope they don't jump out, which can happen....But even though they are jumpers, they only jump when they have no other choice...


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## sciencefiction (24 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> As the SAE was the only change, removed him & the baby swords came back again  (new ones obviously)



Before you posted that I watched a video on youtube of SAEs hunting for large adult cherry shrimp  So when fully grown they'll eat small fish and shrimp, so will most fish. My clown loaches ate newly born fry, especially cory fry which they wiped out,  but they could not manage the livebearers...unfortunately as I wanted to phase them out....(I only have 5 females left now which will be my last platies) When the fry reached a 1.5cm or so, the clowns did not touch them...But the SAEs on that video were taking on very large shrimp, lol


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## sciencefiction (24 Nov 2016)

Smells Fishy said:


> Hmmm fish. You could try emperor tetra, I bet they would look nice in numbers or lamp eyes, upside down catfish or how about just male Guppy's, they'll be easy to see
> 
> Sent from my XT1021 using Tapatalk


 I used to love guppies. I got my first guppy 30 years ago ...and they used to be tough fish. Now they are inbred and riddled with diseases. I did have male guppies with my loaches at first....I love their constant display. They used to show off to the forktail rainbow females too which I also kept at that stage...I will check out the emperor tetras and lamp eyes ...


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## Smells Fishy (24 Nov 2016)

I'm tiring of my goldfish due to a few reasons but mainly because i have a plant crave on and i've tried in this tank but its not happening, i want change, probs make a thread about it sometime regarding my plans . So anyway i bought a male guppy when i was last in my LFS, just one to see how it would fair, wouldn't put it past my Black moor to munch it. Good news though its doing well, it only took a couple of feeds to learn that gel food is actual food instead of the flake it would have been on before. Its not massively scared of my fancys either, it darts away from them when they get to near but it doesn't hide. The wee guy is acting as a filter by hoovering up all the tiny bits so i can't fault him really so i might pick up a few more. For the emperors theres also a black version that i only came across yesterday on aquariumspeed, think the emperors will be more visible in your set up, not sure what colour tho.


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## alto (25 Nov 2016)

Smells Fishy said:


> For the emperors theres also a black version


(in)line bred though so won't be as hardy as the wild type coloring - which are much prettier anyway!


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## zozo (25 Nov 2016)

I have 3 open top tanks now and black neon tetra, ember tetra, pygmaea cory, oto, hara jerdoni, oreichtys causatis, several boraras, pea puffer, trichopsis pumila.

Fish sp. i found on the floor till now are
Ember tetra, oto, oreichtys, boraras and puffer. Ofcourse not all of them, but some or at least one commited suicide for whatever reason.


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## sciencefiction (25 Nov 2016)

Are the tanks filled to the top Marcel?


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## zozo (25 Nov 2016)

Yes about an inch from the top.. But all have plenty surface vegitation as cover.. The most frequent fish sp i found where the boraras several of them jumped.
1 extremely angry puffer did it probably out of frustration.. Found 1 oreichtys, 1 oto and one ember tetra on the floor.. I didn't see it happen and never see any behaivor towards that happening and all are healthy. Except the batch of boraras they brought me were in a rather bad shape and 80% died with in 3 months and about 5 jumped.
So i can only speculate why it happened..

The ember which jumped was a pregnant female.. The oreichtys i have no clue about too.. Both sp. do not realy dwell close to the surface.. Unfortunate colateral damage..

The oto is a very questionable case, because one day i was cleaning the tank glass inside.. Took out my hand and suddenly a saw a oto splashing on the table, it probably sucked onto my hand without me noticing.. Did put it back and it still lives today.. So beeing honest, i do not know how the other one i found on the floor ended up there, it could be same scenario without me noticing. Now i know this can happen i pay close attention if have no suckers attached before taking my hand or tool out of the water.


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## sciencefiction (26 Nov 2016)

I saw glowlight danio(danio choprae) for sale around and considering them...jumpers though...

20 of these will do me...Problem is I have to order them online and I really need to consider quarantining them since I won't be able to see them prior..

Here is a good video about them below. Has anyone kept them?


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## MirandaB (28 Nov 2016)

Yes I've kept them but not for long....pretty fish but real bullies to each other especially at feeding time and extremely greedy too.
I decided to rehome as I just couldn't get food to the other fish in the tank without drastically overfeeding and they unsettled the other fish a lot.
Have you considered Microdevario Kubotai? 
I have these and while they will chase each other a bit,it's between themselves with no damage done and they will stick loosely together


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## mort (28 Nov 2016)

I keep them, have the 10 I started with over a year ago, and my experience is very different from Miranda. They don't intimidate the other fish I have, 12 beckfords pencilfish, but that might be because they can be a bit feisty to but not in the same league as your denisons. They do loosely hang out but not at the top. The tank is extremely well planted and this might be why there is a difference in behaviour. I keep my tank at about 20c as they seem to prefer it cooler like most danios. they are also very easily available and I would just ask your lfs to get some in rather than going through an online company but I'm a see what you buy guy.


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## alto (29 Nov 2016)

I think this video is a little more typical behaviour (that the one linked above) ... I can well imagine that they might outcompete other fishes for food
The Seriously Fish profile page includes a link to "quarreling" behaviour - I've seen my M kubotai & Sundadanio "blue' form doing much the same   

To me they are more a mid-dwelling species, rather than "top"
I've not kept them in my tanks as I keep choco's in every tank & they are "deliberate" eaters rather than part of the "ravening horde"


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## sciencefiction (29 Nov 2016)

Thanks guys, very useful to know... I am still thinking about what to get. .. I do like the M. Kubotai but they are not available at the moment and perhaps not suitable 

What do you think of Pristilla tetras?


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## mort (29 Nov 2016)

sciencefiction said:


> What do you think of Pristilla tetras?



They are nice and hardy but my main concern about them or anything else you add, is that you will soon have some larger Denison barbs. They aren't overly aggressive and are beautiful fish but they might intimidate small peaceful tetra. I'd want to add something that is either a little larger than x-rays or something slightly more feisty which won't be bothered by them as much.


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## sciencefiction (29 Nov 2016)

Thanks Mort. Any suggestions?


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## Smells Fishy (30 Nov 2016)

How about this, to compliment your clown loaches get about 20 tiger barbs.


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## mort (30 Nov 2016)

TBH most of my choices would probably be barbs as well. I like the interactions between them and their feistiness. I've a feeling you mentioned you weren't keen on adding them (or might have made that up) but tiger barbs or green tiger barbs might be good. Personally if it was mine I would get a decent shoal of black ruby, Odessa or the much underrated checker barb, but might go for fewer of something bigger like clown, filament or panda barbs.
Something like giant danios might work well as well. They can take some and stay in the upper levels.

But to tell you the truth I liked your rainbowfish idea to begin with. Boesemans, red and the blues would be good. You could get several harems of different species. I'd bet they would look amazing from above.


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## sciencefiction (30 Nov 2016)

Yes, I did mention I didn't want tiger barbs. I can't risk having any fin nippers even though in large numbers they aren't supposed to be...but I just can't know for certain which are the good ones and I've generally avoided barbs except for the denison barbs... I must investigate other barb species a bit. I haven't even thought about other barbs...The rainbows aren't yet out of the picture either..In the end, if I can't pick, I won't get anything...Its amazing how despite so many species of fish, my choice is so limited..


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## alto (30 Nov 2016)

just get something you like! fish haven't read any books & I find their behaviour is very situational ... commentary is just that 

IME adult SAE are more likely to be a consideration than mature denissoni
Is your lfs open to "trades" if one species doesn't work out?

Maybe do a Mark Evans - try small #'s of different tetras & then increase the shoals of those you like (of course good luck on catching )

ETA how much flow do you think there is?


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## sciencefiction (30 Nov 2016)

On another note perhaps I should not hurry getting other fish until my denison barbs and SAEs grow a bit. I think I must wait and see because the loaches are already getting bolder having the group of small fish around. And all these small fish should get to a decent enough size not to be bothered by the clown loaches either. Right now they line up for food every time I approach the tank but get a big spooked when the loaches start swimming amongst them despite the loaches totally ignoring them. But with a bit of size on in time, things may change.

Now I hope they're are all healthy and all goes well because I did not quarantine them. I've had the denison barbs for just over 3 weeks and the SAEs for a week or so. Its easy counting the SAEs because they stick together all the time but the denison barbs are all over the place alone or bickering at each other in couples. The only time I see them together now is during feeding and water change...


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## sciencefiction (30 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> of course good luck on catching


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## sciencefiction (30 Nov 2016)

alto said:


> IME adult SAE are more likely to be a consideration than mature denissoni



Hey alto, would you please elaborate on this? I am just not sure what you mean about the SAEs. Do they get too pushy?


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## alto (30 Nov 2016)

just in terms of predation


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## alto (30 Nov 2016)

they are also quite quick to check out other fishes - most of the "other" fishes are not so keen on that interest


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## alto (30 Nov 2016)

sciencefiction said:


> Do they get too pushy?


I don't think of them as pushy but something about their interest seems to trigger some stress in some fishes
"Braver" fish seem to acclimate, other fish seem to continue to be more uneasy ... BUT in a larger tank with larger shoals, I suspect most fish will be fine ... you just have to give it a go & see where it leads 

(non-committal enough  0


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## sciencefiction (1 Dec 2016)

Well, I suppose there will be no catching now 

So far they are not interested in any other fish. They keep very tightly in a pack around the tank. They do argue amongst themselves all the time but the next moment they are swimming together happily again. I saw a video of a good school of SAEs and clown loaches together and they seemed quite content with each other. Thatts what I am hoping for. but who knows what will turn out...


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## sciencefiction (1 Dec 2016)

I am only clutching at straws without having the experience of keeping SAEs but I have read they can become aggressive if kept singly. I was surprised to see them so sociable with each other. They dont leave each others sight for long and if one gets left out by accident it tends to stay at the same spot it got lost until the rest come back and they always do. I had never seen this before. Even the clown loaches, being extremely social fish, dont tend to do that.

They also swim a lot. They are hyper active. So my guess is in a smaller tank if feeling cramped it can lead to aggression.

I also read, after I got them, that they can be aggressive towards similar looking fish such as the denison barbs ... If I had read that before I wouldnt have got them. So far they actually seem to school with the barbs when I threaten them with the siphon during a water change. Sometimes one SAE would get confused for a moment and swim with the barbs or a barb would be swimming with the school of SAEs but other than that they are getting on ok. Perhaps raising them together and plenty of space and cover will help in the long run...


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## sciencefiction (1 Dec 2016)

This is the video I mentioned earlier....very cute.There is one impostor in there but the rest are same species as mine.


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## alto (1 Dec 2016)

sciencefiction said:


> I also read, after I got them, that they can be aggressive towards similar looking fish such as the denison barbs ... If I had read that before I wouldnt have got them


I suspect much of this is from single fish or 1-3 SAE being kept in smaller tanks, I'd expect the denisonii to hold their own ... I don't know how small yours are but both species usually grow quite quickly


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## sciencefiction (1 Dec 2016)

They are very small yet...perhaps about 1.5-2 inches the longest of both species.


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## sciencefiction (1 Dec 2016)

alto said:


> both species usually grow quite quickly



I hope they do grow quickly if everything turns alright but I read it takes 1.5 years for the denison barbs to reach full size and I have no idea about the SAEs. In the shop where I got mine, they've got a display tank with some very old SAEs in there. They look huge, way bigger than the ones in the video above, about double the girth of these SAEs and a 1-1.5 inch longer. Mine are tiny. They look like short straws from above


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## sciencefiction (15 Dec 2016)

The phantom tetras didnt look too bad in my local shop..but I couldnt convince myself.... I also freed my small tank and can use it for quarantine because I shouldnt push my luck any further..


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## alto (16 Dec 2016)

I like phantom tetras but not sure you'd see much of them at the top of the tank ...


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## sciencefiction (16 Dec 2016)

You know....I nearly bought a peacock eel while looking for top dwellers....I almost got it and the only thing that stopped me is that it says they are hard to get to eat when first bought...needing live food I can't get here..I think the problem is I dislike top dwellers....but there are so many species of fish I'd like to at least try....


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## alto (17 Dec 2016)

Have you thought of "killi's" - look for killi clubs for a greater range of species than your lfs may get in (though special order way work given enough patience)

Epiplatys species are all top dwelling 

"Lampeye killi's" are also upper dwelling & that brilliant eye & iridescence should make them stand out


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## alto (17 Dec 2016)

Have you considered a male only group of _Poecilia_ _latipinna _sailfin molly  - they are stunning fish when kept in bigger tanks, just look for good quality stock
(quite the opposite fish to the killi's  )


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## sciencefiction (17 Dec 2016)

Thanks alto. I like the lampeye killis. I haven't seen them around for sale. I'll research them a bit. The mollies are beautiful but not sure I'd want to keep mollies. They remind me of platies


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## alto (17 Dec 2016)

sciencefiction said:


> not sure I'd want to keep mollies. They remind me of platies


they shouldn't but now they are so commercially interbred that your average platy/molly is just that 
I was looking at some of your tanks photos & suddenly imagined those stunning sailfin molly's in there - not many shops here bring in the sailfins as they are big fish that really need a bigger tank to thrive.

There are also bigger "lampeyes" that would be rather nice to mix in with the smaller species (the bigger species are often quite expensive)


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## sciencefiction (17 Dec 2016)

alto said:


> There are also bigger "lampeyes" that would be rather nice to mix in with the smaller species (the bigger species are often quite expensive)



What are their names do you know? I've looked at killis but there are so many types of them requiring different conditions, one gets lost


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## alto (17 Dec 2016)

I've finally started fish tanks so I'll look later


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## zozo (18 Dec 2016)

Also have very greedy black tetras and for a short periode i had the roaring dwarf gourami with them and the guoramis where always out competed and to shy to mingle with the tetras agression. They were always chased back into the plants..

I started using a mortar and pestle and have a sinking pellet Sera Vipa chip and a spirulina pellet.. I'll grind and mix it together.. Now the spirulina falls appart to a powder and the much harder vipa chip stays more coarse and sinks much faster.. Both sink finaly, but in a different rate and the spiruline floats for a while.

The amount of food i give is the same, but less consentrated and much smaller pieces the surface arae the food is applied to is much larger and all fish get their fair share. What reaches the bottom is cleaned by the shrimps, oto's and cory's.


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## Costa (18 Dec 2016)

Might I suggest you take a look at hatchet fish?


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## sciencefiction (18 Dec 2016)

Costa said:


> Might I suggest you take a look at hatchet fish?



Will do


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## sciencefiction (18 Dec 2016)

zozo said:


> Also have very greedy black tetras and for a short periode i had the roaring dwarf gourami with them and the guoramis where always out competed and to shy to mingle with the tetras agression. They were always chased back into the plants..
> 
> I started using a mortar and pestle and have a sinking pellet Sera Vipa chip and a spirulina pellet.. I'll grind and mix it together.. Now the spirulina falls appart to a powder and the much harder vipa chip stays more coarse and sinks much faster.. Both sink finaly, but in a different rate and the spiruline floats for a while.
> 
> The amount of food i give is the same, but less consentrated and much smaller pieces the surface arae the food is applied to is much larger and all fish get their fair share. What reaches the bottom is cleaned by the shrimps, oto's and cory's.



I've always fed small pellets in sizes from 1 to 3mm. When I had my forktail rainbows, because they fed from the surface only....I'd let the 1mm float and sink the bigger sized pellets with my hand for the bottom feeders. Now that I don't have corydoras in the tank I don't let much food hit the bottom. I feed the clown loaches first because they come up to the surface a lot these days and literally mop all that I give them quite fast...When the excitement has worn off, they do go back foraging the bottom for a few minutes before they come up again asking for more food, and at this stage I feed the denison barbs with 1mm pellets, also the SAEs come up too....Everyone is fed well.... But I also sink the 1mm pellets for the barbs because they do not take them floating at the surface. They mop them all before they've fallen halfway down...If I had surface feeders...I can just let the pellets float and I am sure I'll have no problem feeding small surface feeders like this given the surface area of the tank...None of my current fish seem to be interested at eating floating food...I think the point is feeding the right bite size food so if the fish gets it, it swallows it straight away...


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## sciencefiction (23 Dec 2016)

Well, I got 9 cute baby harlequin rasboras.....They've just been acclimated and are in my small tank with two more baby clown loaches....I know very little about these rasboras and like a newbie, I asked the owner of the shop(its a small local shop). He said they're from Indonesia, same water where clown loaches come(he knows what fish I keep) and the water there he says is with ph between 7 and 7.6... Funny, because I found a paper on breeding clown loaches and it says exactly the same....high ph...where everyone seems to think clown loaches come from soft acidic water....I'll post it if anyone is interested...

6 of the rasboras started schooling around straight away but 3 are hiding. I know the rasboras are quite common but they are super cute......

One of the clown loaches is breathing heavily and is pretty stressed from what I can tell....we'll see how it goes...They spent about 2 hrs in the bags..but I am pretty certain they were at least two weeks in the shop because one of them is a spotted loach and he was there the last time.

Happy Christmas everyone.


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