Upper water South American fish ideas?

[Wills88]

Hi just looking for some ideas of good upper water fish for South/Central American cichlids - racking my brains and cant come up with anything.

Tank is 135 6x2x18 - its 2 foot tall 18 inches front to back.

Any ideas would be great

Thanks Wills

 

[Aquanero]

Gasteropelecidae sp. are nice depending on what you have in the tank a group of hatchetfish will fill the upper section of a community tank.

 

[HiImSean]

festivus make good top to mid water fish, depending on what else is in the tank

 

[Wills88]

Hi thanks for the replies

Tank has
1 female Nic
1 Heros Severus
2 Heros sp.Belum <----- only young not sure if I am keeping both
4 Geophagus Winemilleri
5 Annostomus Ternetzi
1 Aegenisous Catfish - cant remember the species name and planet catfish is down quite small growing though at around 5 inches.

But as you can see the upper half of the tank is going to be quite empty which seems a bit of a shame really :/

I was thinking about Festivums but not sure I should add any more cichlids - I do quite like hatchets but not really my first choice

Wills

 

[hamfist]

2nd on the festivum. WOuld fit in very well with what you have and generally are found in the top half.

 

[Wills88]

Thanks Hamfist - do you not think it would be too many cichlids? Or do you think they will just take up a separate section of territory?

Wills

 

[hamfist]

Thanks Hamfist - do you not think it would be too many cichlids? Or do you think they will just take up a separate section of territory?

Wills

I think there's a good chance it might well work out. Although with cichlids you never know. My current festivum took an instant dislike to the (much bigger) angel fish it was initially put with. So I moved it to another tank, and it has been fine with everything, and everything else has been fine with it.
Sounds like there would be room in your tank for it. Best chance of success would probably be to buy a small one (which obviously offered no threat to any other fish's dominance) and let it grow up with your lot.

 

[HiImSean]

i dont think it'd be too many cichlids. my 125g use to be stocked like this - H. psittacus, pair of severums, trio of S. daemon, 4 M. festivus, and a large flag tail. they all went about their own business besides the psittacus

btw do you have pics of your H. sp. belum, i'm interested in what they are

 

[dogofwar]

Pink tail chalceus would be great

 

[Wills88]

Great! Yeah I think I will try them Get a group of youngsters and see how it goes.

Sean these are my Belums - they are a regional variant of H.Efasticious but carry a lot of blue in the face, unfortunately these two have a birth defect and have a wonky left pectoral fin with a split down the middle, I didnt spot it in the shop as it was dark but I dont mind it too much..... well I do but trying not to let it bother me.

Male

Female

All together with my H.Severus behind it

Wills