Suggestions for a top-dweller?

[pjaldave]

They can adapt to warmer temperatures. :)

[Amelia]

Oh okay, I know a breeder in my area sells them for $1 each, I'll look into them. :) Thanks Paul!

[FinalJenemba]

Whits Clouds can live in anything, I had a school of about 18 in my Tanganyika tank at one point. Ok fish, pretty boring though, just less colorful neons really, they did stay at top though. They can be a good fish when all you want is movement in the water but you don't want to actually have them take any attention away from your more interesting fish. They are the elevator music of fish lol.

[Amelia]

Elevator music fish.

[Gogi]

Male endlers stay on top alot but like to go exploring. Lampeye killifish are cool too and they stay at the top. I have 6 lampeyes in my 30 gal and their eyes remind me of stars. My three endlers are constanly flirting with the lampeyes.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sometimes (most of the time) we simply have to settle for what we can find in our area. There are thousands of kinds of cool fish but if they are not available to us, then we have to stock what we can get. What is in every fish store in New Zealand or Australia does not mean it's easy to get for others elsewhere.

A big plus is if it's a fish they carry fairly often so if we loose part of a school, it can be built up again. I had one red-tail rasbora that was the last of his school and the poor thing lived alone for 2 years after the others were long gone and I could never find others like him again.

[FinalJenemba]

LH: Very true statement. It can be frustrating when you get all these amazing fish recommended to you, and you go the the LFS list in hand and don't find a single one.

This is the main reason I say its always best to plan your entire stock right from the start. Makes it much easier to order online. The expensive shipping charges from a place like wetspot or liveaquaria is allot easier to swallow when your doing a whole tank. It was so worth it for my 29, I was finally able to get all the stuff I can't get, killies, apistos, disorossus(sp?), etc. And with schools allot of the time aquabid can come in handy for that. All the sellers on aquabid tend to sell fish in lots, its not a problem buying 12 neons but who wants to buy 12 Jack Dempsy's? lol

[Amelia]

Thanks for considering that, LH, you're very much correct. The range of fish available in NZ (especially the South Island like me) is A LOT narrowed than is probably available to most of you guys.

Also places like aquabid, wetspot or liveaquaria do not deliver to NZ, and as far as I know there is no NZ alternative. If you want something that the FLS does not stock, you'd have to just try and convince them to order it in specially for you -- which is expensive and unlikely they will want to do it for you. Plus 6 weeks quarantine, DOC import fees, etc. It's just not worth it. Basically it's whats swimming around in the LFS, or through a few breeders here and there.

[FinalJenemba]

Oh I totally missed the new zealand part. You may have some issues with killies then as there aren't any native to Australia. They're really only common in Europe, even in America I still had to order mine.

Maybe let us know what your LFS usually has and we can go from there?

[cwoolf19]

zebra danios will go along well with the neons and stay towards the top.