Top dweller suggestions

[hackmaster]

Looking for top dwelling fish suggestions, I have a 55g with an electric blue acara, 5 tiger barbs, 9 striped barbs, 6 gold barbs and a bristlenose pleco.

I would like some solely top dwellers to comment the upper half of the tank. I am unsure with the compatibility and have been doing my head in trying to find something suitable.

Please help me....

 

[Salty&Onion]

Hatchet fish, golden wonder killifish, african butterfly fish, clown killifish, orange hatchet, half beak.

Half beaks are brackish as marine fish, but hatchet fish are awesome lil fishie and calm and peaceful.

 

[utahfish]

Youll want to stay away from hatchet fish youre tank is way too aggressive for them. Danios stay towards the top most the time and are quick enough to not get eaten by an acara and not get bullied by the barbs though what are the striped barbs? Do you have a scientific name???

 

[hackmaster]

Desmopuntius johorensis

Not very common but my local LFS had them in at 50p a piece, I thought they looked great and would fill the tank out.

 

[Byron]

With that selection of fish I don't believe there are any suitable surface fish.

 

[hackmaster]

This is what's doing my head in, I've been searching and searching for something to no avail

 

[Sarah73]

You have some interesting species together, I wonder how they cope together. As long as your pH is higher than 6.5, then you should be good. As for other species, um I wouldn't suggest any. Tiger barbs will literally nip at all of the top dwellers I am thinking about.

 

[hackmaster]

The barbs swim together, no issues at all. The eba just swims around.

 

[Byron]

The barbs swim together, no issues at all. The eba just swims around.

This may be the case now, but it is not necessarily going to last. Once you start introducing fish that donot fit in with more active feisty fish like the barbs, you are basically challenging them. Like waving a red flag in front of a bull, it is going to cause trouble.

Surface level fish tend to be quiet, sedate, not active swimmers. You cannot have this sort of fish iin the same tank with active barbs.

 

[hackmaster]

Thanks for the input, the Tigers are fully grown and have been living with the other barbs for about a year now. The eba has been in from the start.

 

[Byron]

Thanks for the input, the Tigers are fully grown and have been living with the other barbs for about a year now. The eba has been in from the start.

That's fine, but misses the point some of us have been making. You asked about surface level fish, and we are saying that with the barbs this is not going to be feasible. That's all.