fish for upper half

[treesprite]

The current fish are: pair of dragonets, 1 Rainfords goby, 1 Hectors goby, 1 orange firefish, 1 purple firefish, 1 pair clowns, 1 yellow tang. As you can see, the bottom half of my tank is well stocked. Unfortunately, the top half is pretty much empty. The clowns stay around their host (an orange monti!) most of the time. The tang stays in the lower half weaving through the archways (5 archways - makes the tank seem much bigger).

 

So, I need suggestions. I have given up on my own ideas. Fish must be fairly peaceful. Fish must be small, like 3" or less for a rounder fish, or 4" max size for a fish roughly the shape of a firefish. I prefer a type of fish that will hang out as a pair, but isn't mandatory. Please leave out suggestions for cardinals and chromis.

 

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

[roni]

I like the starki damsel as a small distinctive water column fish. I know you said no cardinals but the blue eyed cardinal is a nice tight schooler that stays in the water column. Most of the flasher/fairy wrasses stay in the water column and are very colorful and active.

[treesprite]

I recently had a nightmare issue related to blue eye cardinals - I love them, but I don't want dead fish. They are very poor shippers. I would like to know how people who have them got them.

[beatle]

Any reason for excluding chromis? They're cheap, peaceful, and were always near the top of my tank when I had them years ago. Not the most gorgeous fish, but they looked better than the empty space.

[treesprite]

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Any reason for excluding chromis? They're cheap, peaceful, and were always near the top of my tank when I had them years ago. Not the most gorgeous fish, but they looked better than the empty space.

 

The green/blue ones are cute when small, but at full maturity can be somewhat aggressive and their color dulls out.

 

Is there some type of goby or dartfish that uses upper water? I doubt it, but maybe someone has read something I haven't seen.

[trockafella]

What about blue reef chromis, or other variances of chromis. Also, Ive never seen a blue/green chromis dull out. I had some for years that never changed. Flasher and fairy wrasses are really nice and active.

[hypertech]

Maybe some kupang damsels and wrasses. Dwarf angels swim around a lot too.

[MBVette]

You can probably get a couple anthias, they are very active but you just have to feed a lot.

[smallreef]

hhrrmmm im going with hypertech and saying that dwarf angels might be your best bet.. but of course the possibility of picking...

And there are anthias though those are mid-level swimmers...

I dont really know any fish that swim towards the top specifically???

[treesprite]

What fish swim in more open water rather than stay close to or in the rockwork? That might be a better question to ask, since the types of fish I have prefer staying close to the rockwork and it just happens that the rockwork is in the lower half of the tank.

 

I have had cherub angels twice. I really like them, but both times the fish got obnoxious, annoying, and intrusive towards the rest of the fish once settled into their surroundings. I had to get rid of the second one because by then I had firefish that can't tolerate such a feisty darting-around-all-over-the-place tank mate. The last one chased a clown into the overflow and I never saw the clown again (the angel was actually nipping the clown's tail).

 

There are a couple of anthias that stay small, but I am not going to be able to feed them more than 2x/day. A couple of sites I saw last night, said that if there is a good refugium (which I do), the anthias will be ok without so many feedings. I would like to here hear from other people how they feed them and what their typical behavior is, what area they swim in.

 

Blue reef chromis get too big. I think with the green-blue chromis, the color has to do with lighting. I only have had small ones and they were a pretty blue color. But Holly has had larger ones and they are bland looking and somewhat aggressive.

Edited December 19, 2011 by treesprite