# Hatchet Fish?



## lowfi (Apr 18, 2007)

Anybody had any experience with these cool fish in planted aquariums? I am fascinated by them. OH I almost forgot...do all guoromis (wow that is a typo) require salt??? I saw some cool ones today at the LFS..the tag said requires aquarium salt. Thanks for any info you can give!

~Sean


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## snickle (Apr 8, 2007)

I have about a dozen in my 90G planted. I don;t use salt in either of my tanks that have gouramis.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

lowfi said:


> Anybody had any experience with these cool fish in planted aquariums? I am fascinated by them. OH I almost forgot...do all guoromis (wow that is a typo) require salt??? I saw some cool ones today at the LFS..the tag said requires aquarium salt. Thanks for any info you can give!
> 
> ~Sean


No salt required for either species. My only suggestion is make sure you have a really tight lid with absolutely no holes or else you lose them, the Hatchets, all over the course of a few months. Nonetheless it is a beautiful fish, really unique physical features.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

The others are dead right - no salt for either gouramis or hatchets.

I kept Marbled Hatchets for years and they're great fish for a peaceful tank with a good lid! They are very nervous fish though and like a quiet life! They are also seem to be more sensitve to wastes than other characins. Lovely fish though and I must keep them again soon. Good luck with them.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Floating plants like Amazon frogbit, Salvinia and red root floater also keep the hatchets happier. My group of six are much calmer since I let the floaters cover more of the tank. Added bonus, when I have to remove the glass cover the floaters keep them calm enough so they stay in the tank. The hatchets are doing well with a pair of angelfish, several female bettas and a school of lemon tetras. It's funny because they sometimes school with the tetras at mid-level instead of staying at the top like I'd expect them to.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

I'd have one jumper out of 20 so far in the 2 months I've had them and that happened on the first day. They give a nice wild look to the tank and pose well for pictures.










My tanks are not covered and not lost any since second day except to some white spot[in other tank]. May be a good idea not to keep predatorial fish that might scare them to jump.


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## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Really nice Stan! Perhaps one of my favorite fish that I have yet to keep. Do you have a lot of plant cover? And how about a full-tank shot to see the whole effect?


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

Thanks Raul, this would be my ADA 2007 entry. So er... can't share full shot yet. 










There's little plant cover except for the overgrown Eleocharis vivipara that needs a good tug & comb every 2 weeks. Mostly ferns and bolbitis. As you can see from the pic there's little cover at the top.

The lighting is an Arcadia S3 MH hung about 1 ft from this 3ft tank, so there's nothing to prevent them from 'flying' if they choose to. [They don't, last I checked! :mrgreen: ]

Sorry for the over the top green tint. My camera setting white balance was a bit off as I only had the cam less than ten days.:-D


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