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Suggest top dwelling schooling fish for a warm medium hard tank

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.
 
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.
 
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?

 
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 :)
 
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.
 
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"
 
sciencefiction said:
What do you think of Pristilla tetras?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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..
 
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 :D)

ETA how much flow do you think there is?
 
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...
 
they are also quite quick to check out other fishes - most of the "other" fishes are not so keen on that interest
 
sciencefiction said:
Do they get too pushy?
Click to expand...
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 :lol: 0
 
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