maybe feeding this with ordenairy floating flake food makes the fish focus to much on what's happening above them
agree that this may be a more relevant factor than many expect
(I rarely feed surface floating foods)
cardinal ,neon,emperor,harlequin raspora, serpae, glowlight,black phantom.
I have some
green neons - likely wild caught as they have a very high sense of "alert"
and they are tiny (that reported 15 - 25mm seems accurate) - in contrast, I've seen many green neon shipments in the shops that are much larger ... I like the more subtle coloring of these fish (rather than cardinals - though Troi's picture is stunning
)
Black phantom would be quite opposite in behavior (& aspect) to the
Glowlights so consider which appeals more - I'm not sure of the dimensions of your tank, you might try a smaller group of both, then switch over to the one that appeals more (check if your lfs allows return for credit etc) ... or keep both
Most shoaling species, once relaxed in an environment, will begin to spread out & occupy all areas of the tank, only returning to a "school" formation when threatened (threat may not be overt)
Emperor tetras I'd not actually put in a small tank - suggested minimum is 60cm, but they can be quite territorial (rival males) & I'd not add them to any tank under 90cm (& not a shallow tank)
I was just looking at the tank this morning with
M kubotai (50 or so)
S axelrodi (maybe 12 or so remaining - they completely integrate with the kubotai rather than remaining close to other axelrodi)
9 orange "guppy boys" (look to be a guppy/endler mix)
The streaming "shoal" ... was the group of bright
orange! they often separate but rarely stay apart long, there are a couple that like to go about their own business, but the group of 7 is rarely apart