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i am planning on settingup a new tank and am planning on putting in a school of hatchetfish and was wondering if there are any tetras that would get along well with them or any other suggestions for tankmates

thanks

As far as I know, Hatchetfish are very nonaggressive and get along fine with everything -- and there are very few tetras that are aggressive at all (although Serpaes are a glaring exception, and I've heard some stories that Penguin Tetras are nippy too -- as well as hanging around near the top of the water like the Hatchets). Also, Cochu's Blue Tetras -- although they never seem to actually bite -- do tend to chase and threaten other fish a lot, and might very well frighten your Hatchets into jumping (see below).

The one thing you apparently have to watch with Hatchets is the fact that they are just about the jumpingest fish there are -- because they're the world's only genuine flying (as opposed to gliding) fish. Those huge chests are packed with muscles that allow them to flap their pectoral fins dozens of times per second, giving them enough aerial lift to enormously extend the length of their leaps. And thus they will be tempted to jump out of your tank at the drop of a hat.

thanks for the help

and i'll be sure to cover the tank heavily


hev

Bruce has beaten me to it.

Yes, Hatchet Fishes of all species are, in effect, ICBMs with fins when the mood takes them. Bear in mind that these fishes are around 2 inches in length depending upon species (some a little larger, some smaller) yet they can cover truly astonishing distances once they launch themselves skywards. Six feet in a single leap is well within the reach of these fishes, and if they have a nice long stretch of river providing them with a 'runway' for takeoff, a full pectoral-assisted flight could cover 40 feet or so!

As well as paying attention to keeping them with companion fish species that won't unduly stress or harass them (and Bruce has listed the notable species to be avoided) another way of helping to keep them calm is to provide them with at least some floating plant cover. If there's a decent sized air gap above the water line, then Pistia stratiotes, the Water Lettuce, is a perfect plant to put in an aquarium with Hatchet Fishes, because it has enough foliage above the surface to provide a resting place for wingless fruit flies, which Hatchet Fishes will snap at with relish. Failing that, some Hornwort left to float will provide adequate floating plant cover, though the growth rate of this plant is such that you have to remove surplus Hornwort on a regular basis - in my aquarium (the Panda Fun Palace) the stuff can grow at the rate of three inches per day when it's happy, and so you wil need to ensure that this plant doesn't crowd the Hatchets out of the surface!

Oh, and if you feed Hatchet Fishes with wingless fruit flies and mosquito larvae (the nearest dietary combination readily available to the aquarist that approximates well to the wild diet) then your Hatchet Fishes will come into breeding condition pretty quickly.

Size wise, I'd go with Marble Hatchets (they're only 1.5 inches long as adults, so you can keep a bigger group in any given sized aquarium than the larger species), keep a minimum of 8 of them (preferably 12 or more if space allows) and team them up with something like Rosy Tetras if you want a colour contrast.

By the way, if you're planning on keeping Hatchet Fishes, and you're setting up an entirely new aquarium for them, the way I'd suggest you do this is to obtain an aquarium that's fairly tall height wise - say 16 inches high - but only fill it to a maximum waterline depth of 12 inches. Leave a 4 inch air gap above the aquarium waterline, then you'll have room to put in two ro three Pistia stratiotes as a floating plant, and you'll be able to have all the fun of watching your Hatchets crowd around the floating plant waiting for small insects to fall off into the water. Which, if you supply wingless fruit flies for the purpose, will not only condition your Hatchets for breeding, but provide some sterling entertainment as the Hatchets jump up and snap at the insects!

Among the companions that will go well with Marble Hatchets are: Cardinals, Neons, Glowlights, Lemon Tetras, Rosies, Black Phantoms, Red Phantoms, Head & Tail Lights, Rummies, basically the usual gamut of Tetras that you'll find in the stores.

By way of a truly eye popping contrast, you could, if your planned aquarium is large enough, and you choose the other companions carefully, run with the Spotted Headstander, Chilodus punctatus, as a companion fish. This strange fish swims constantly at a 45 degree head down angle, and a group of them kept with Marble Hatchets would be awesome to behold ... however, if you can FIND these fishes to start with (they're likely to be difficult to obtain), they're also more demanding in other respects than the 'bread and butter' Tetras, in that they need intermittent live foods (which have to swim near the bottom because of their head down feeding posture), plus algae, and they also need scrupulous attention to water cleanliness. If you're prepared to live with their somewhat demanding requirements however, they're a rarity that will provide an instant conversation point with other fishkeepers!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks for the advice

oh would a school of corys for the bottom of the tank be all right, tempermant wise with the hatchets?

i'm guessing they would since they would probably never see each other!!

Since Corys and Hatchets live together in the same waters in the wild, have totally different feeding habits, and are unlikely to see each other too often as you said (apart from when the Corys pop up for a new air bubble for the gut) then you'll have NO problems whatsoever keeping Corys in there with the Hatchets. In fact, as a means of ensuring that there's no uneaten food rotting about the bottom (see Bruce Moomaw's post on sepcticaema in The Hospital here as to why keeping a decent number of bottom feeders is a good idea in most aquaria) a good sized shoal of Corys (minimum 6 of the larger species, minimum 8 if running with Pandas or habrosus is my recommendation) will help make aquarium maintenance easier and will also be healthier for the other inbhabitants.

Depending upon how much money you have to spend on this project, I'd go for an aquarium that can hold a minimum of 25 gallons of water when filled with an air gap at the top, and preferably one that is elongate in shape so that the Hatchets have something akin to a 'river surface' to flit across. If your budget will run to a 4ft aquarium, then you'll be able to have decent sized shoals of everything - 12 Marble Hatchets, 12 medium Corys (or 16 Pandas/habrosus) and 12-16 midwater swimmers (but I'd stick to one species instead of trying to put too many different ones in there, partly for ease of maintenance, and partly because once you've seen a BIG shoal of something like Cardinals or Rummies in action, you'll NEVER want to go back to 'pick and mix' stocking ever again!). Run with something like this:

12 Marble Hatchets
16 Pandas
12 Cardinals/Rummies

and the resulting display will blow your socks off once it's bedded in and the plants are growing too


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

One cautionary note about Chilodus punctatus: it's another of those uncommon Characins that is territorial, at least toward others of its own species. Besides reading about this, I once kept two at once about 13 years ago, and there was occasional nipping and jousting. It may not be accident that one of them died quickly. The other held on for some months, and I don't know whether its sudden death was due to my damnable problems in those days with tank sanitation or to the fact that flake foods were inadequate for it. (By the way, let me thank Callie for that last bit of information, of which I was unaware.)

They do have a rather weird charm, although watching one bounce happily around the tank on its head like a living Pogo stick can give you vertigo after a while. They also have a graceful, streamlined body shape, a little like the Puntius denisonii Barb that's suddenly become such a fad -- but at about 1/10 the cost.

I sometimes wonder whether, given a few million more years in which to evolve, Hatchetfish might become capable of SUSTAINED flight.

By the way, I still have my videotape of an ABC nature special about a decade ago on the wildlife of the Rio Negro ("Secrets of the Golden River" -- including an astonishing cross-sectional view of a school of frightened Hatchetfish taking to flight, like a flock of aquatic sparrows taking off from the surface of the water.

Also, while going through some back issues of "TFH" today, I ran across a recommendation to feed Hatchets lots of live food -- while they can survive on flakes, apparently they don't do well on it.

Also, I've just seen a one-sentence description of a species profile of Chilodus punctatus in the April 2004 "Aquarium Fish" -- apparently it demands plant food, so bottom-sitting algae wafers would seem to be just its thing. (Also, for Caliliasseia's benefit: the Nov. 2004 issue has a Neolebias ansorgii species profile.)

If you can scan that profile and mail it to me Bruce, that will be very welcome!

Oh, I mentioned above that Chilodus punctatus likes to munch on algae as well as take live foods. It's a bit of an oddity in that regard, in that it needs intermittent live foods AND algae for best maintenance. Plus, I gather that two individuals together make for some scrapping, but six or more and the tendency of the fish to squabble with conspecifics evens out a bit ...

All in all, a VERY odd fish. Unbelievably rare except among specialist Characin collectors, and finding it here in the UK is going to be a MAJOR logistical exercise. As is usually the case with oddball Characins I like


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Unfortunately, I don't see any way to get hold of "Aquarium Fish's" Neolebias article, except perhaps for you to write and see if you can get that back issue. (As for the "FAMA" article, that was actually mostly about Neolebias' neighbor in the same waters, the little "Barbus jae" barb -- which apparently is also very colorful, very hard to find, and extremely easy to raise and breed if you do get it. I've already told you virtually everything that article had to say about Neolebias.)

The first time I ran across Chilodus punctatus was in a small local general pet store which in those days got unusual fish in with surprising frequency (including Anableps and the first adult Blue Emperor tetras I had ever seen, which is what first revealed to me the beauty of that species). They had a whole tank of about half a dozen Chilodus once, who were indeed well-behaved toward each other in a group that big.

Only rarely since then have I seen even a single one in a store -- and I've passed up buying them largely because, with that first one that I bought, the children's librarians told me that little kids were continually running up and telling them in worried tones about that sick fish that was standing on its head...

If I had the guaranteed live food supply, I'd be mad enough to keep Chilodus punctatus ... sounds like my kind of fish

My Braz Walker pocket book has a VERY nice illustration of the species ... from the basic body shape it looks as if it began life evolving toward becoming a Pencil Fish, then changed its mind halfway and decided that it wanted to be a Leporinus instead. Only quite a few Leporinus species will adopt a head down angle (and this fish is a sort of second cousin of the Leporinus). It's also related to Prochilodus insignis, but unlike that much larger fish, isn't known for being an ICBM with fins. Presumably because jumping out of an aquarium requires some awkward gymnastics if your natural body inclination in the water is 45 degrees head down ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Actually, I've been under the impression that Chilodus punctatus, like all other Headstanders, is a vegetable-food fiend and would thus go for algae wafers in a big way. There were two young ones (the first I've ever seen) just a week ago in my LFS, but I didn't buy them (the aforementioned Little Kid problem), and somebody else quickly snapped them up.

Oh what a pity - still, it would have been fun to see those little kids gogin goggle eyed at the head standing fish ...

Chilodus punctatus is another of those oddball Characoids I intend keeping at some point, because I happen to have a major soft spot for weird Characoids. Trouble is, the interesting and kooky ones are all woefully rare - Corynopoma riisei, the Swordtail Characin, is another one that deserves to be far more widely available but isn't (sigh).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002