EMERGENCY pink tailed chalceus dying

[Rafini]

Actually the aeration idea came up to help ease your fish breathing oxygen while he was in a delicate situation. Active top dweller in a 5'x3' footprint? How about a red tail giant gourami? Oh, that one's not active???...I cannot think of any top dwelling fish other than an arowana? How about you get datnoids?

I have a giant gourami in there already hes my main/show fish. hes only around 11" right now. I also have a 3" datnoid that refuses to eat anything other than shrimp and has grown maybe an inch and a half since I got it in july. I have always loved Arowana's but I feel that 5' length would not be good enough for one, which is a shame cause when I got an amazing deal on this tank I originally thought "YES I could maybe get an Aro now"

Thanks for the kind words everyone, the chalceus I had was very active and ate loads at feeding time, it lived up to all my expectations. it grew pretty fast too, it went from 4" to 8" like that and put on some considerable thickness before dying

 

[mr.bigglesworth]

Hmmm... top dwelling fish... how about a group of giant bettas? They are very peaceful fish. Don't let the name fool u. These fish also do great in groups. Their not colorful at all. Just a dullish gray. But their very popular because of their peacefulness.

Hatchetfish
I realize these fishes are small but they are known for being able to 'fly' out of the water to evade predators. They have streamlined fins to help them glide farther in the air. Faster than danios too. It should easily be able to outrun your predatory fish. Cheap too.

Archerfish
This fish is brackish water but I just thought id mention it. It is possible to keep them in full fresh as my lfs does yearround. They've had theirs for months too.

 

[Rafini]

Archers would be cool but I can't really change the salinity as it is deadly to pleco's. I contemplated brackish at first but it would take me one whole bag of marine salt to go up just 0.2 SG because it is a 225 gallon tank anything small and my clown knife will eat it. thats why the chalceus was such a great fit

 

[Naos1984]

I have a giant gourami in there already hes my main/show fish. hes only around 11" right now. I also have a 3" datnoid that refuses to eat anything other than shrimp and has grown maybe an inch and a half since I got it in july. I have always loved Arowana's but I feel that 5' length would not be good enough for one, which is a shame cause when I got an amazing deal on this tank I originally thought "YES I could maybe get an Aro now"

Thanks for the kind words everyone, the chalceus I had was very active and ate loads at feeding time, it lived up to all my expectations. it grew pretty fast too, it went from 4" to 8" like that and put on some considerable thickness before dying

I just bought an 18" giant gourami. Yehey! I followed my own advice. I had one in September but I exchanged it for a pbass due to nasty behaviour. This one's acting totally the opposite, a miss on the nasties! How about yours? No one has identified my GG yet if it is male or female in my thread, no replies yet.
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Oh, I also have a clown knife.



You now have an idea for a top dwelling fish? How about a jardini? Never seen any over 3' and I am sure you will have more than one large tank by then for an upgrade if that time comes. Jardinis by the way are hit or miss like the giant gourami.