medium-sized schooling fish for 125g?

[dethjam316]

does anyone have suggestions for (preferably) medium-sized schooling fish for a 125g i will be setting up in july? i can't have anything smaller than 2 or 3 inches, lest it become a snack for my (currently and growing FAST) 6-inch sun cat (h. brachysoma). the tanks other primary inhabitants will be a mix of non-dwarf gourami species i've kept successfully together in a 55g for a few months.

i'm moving to florida then, so i'm changing all my setups, selling or giving away some tanks and most of my fish, and i'm not bringing anything larger than a 20g with me to facilitate the long move...

so it'll be fun starting over with a new large tank. from setting up smaller tanks in the last couple months, i've found it's so much easier to decorate and setup a *new* tank, and they turn out much better when you plan everything out!

[TomFromStLouis]

I always thought that having a big enough tank to have a school of giant danios would make an awesome display. Active, some color, excellent shoalers.

[dbcb314]

what about congo tetras

[dethjam316]

i was thinking about giant danios but worry that they might annoy the gouramis, and i've heard they can be somewhat nasty. congo tetras might be too small, esp. since most i see in stores (which really isn't all that often, but i admit i haven't been looking) are juveniles or not near full-size.

let me add, as well, that i'd prefer an asian fish. my roommate has scissortail rasboras in a tank right now, and they're about 3-4 inches each and school nicely, but i must admit i've never been especially crazy about them. i don't think they have much personality, nor do i think they're especially striking.

but then again, might schooling mentality in general preclude the development of personality? hmm...

[ChilDawg]

Harlequin Rasboras are very striking...

[ChilDawg]

but they would be sun cat snacks.

[dbcb314]

harlequin rosaboras are boring, but i think must schooling fish are boring.

uuuhh asian that can go with gouramis. clown loaches school. but i thihnk you mean a top water fish.

zebra danios are too small, barbs would bite gourami, uuhh i have no idea. not really a tropical guy

[dethjam316]

i would love to have a huge school of harlequins...alas, i envision a school dropping from 40...to 35...to 30...to 25...etc...while the sun cat goes from 6 inches...to 7 inches...to 8 inches...etc. you get the idea.

so you see, this is far from an easy question...

so far the only options i'm seeing are giant danios, scissortails, and maybe some kind of barb (though most of the non-fin-nipping ones are probably too small).

...anything else?

[ChilDawg]

T-barbs (Spanner Barbs) are oft-kept with cichlids...they get to be 18 cm (~7") and are good dither/target fish. I wonder if those wouldn't suit your needs...someone else needs to tell us if they're fin-nippers, though.

[mickey]

Tin foil barbs might be your answer although they can get to be quite big eventually.
Cheers.

[OrionGirl]

Some of the larger rainbows should be okay. My turquoise are about 3.5 inches right now, fast swimmers, good schoolers. Very nice colors, as well.

[scott]

I like oriongirls idea of the rainbows or a small school of silver dollars or red hooks might be nice. I think the silver is very striking.

[GT3050]

Try some rosy barbs or some of the larger rainbows.

[dethjam316]

tinfoil barbs are an interesting idea; however i am concerned that they would get too big to adequately house both a school of them and other fish i enjoy.

rainbowfish are a possiblity...i've never kept them before. do you think they would irritate the slow-moving, mellow gouramis?

[OrionGirl]

I had gouramies and rainbows together for a while, but moved the gouramies because the blue tetras annoyed the heck out of them. The gouramies actually shared their hang outs with the rainbows, but would chase out the shark and algae eater.

Rainbows are really easy to take care of--they eat anything, don't harrass anyone (least in my tank), and are really pretty.

[Rometiklan]

Rainbows are awesome fish. They are very streamlined and move through the water like a torpedo. They are fast and people have used them as dither fish. If I ever get around to setting up a community tank, I think Rainbows would be very high on my list of possibilities.

[dbcb314]

rainbows and gouramis are fine. ive done it before and they didnt bother each other at all

[demon_surfer]

with a 125g tank could a couple of bala sharks be feasible? they are very active

[dethjam316]

i agree, bala sharks would be awesome, but i am concerned that a 125g wouldn't be large enough to house a true "school"

[ChilDawg]

dethjam, are these sun cats bottom dwellers? If so, the balas wouldn't work so well anyway.

[dethjam316]

yes, they are, they only occasionally swim the middle strata of the aquarium after all the lights are out...

see profile from planet catfish (http://planetcatfish.com/ilibrary/bagridae/horabagr/159_f.htm)

very very cool fish...if you're up late enough to watch and have a big enough tank to house them. by day, this species hides away in any caves it can jam itself into, but at night it really shows its stuff, especially if live food is available for it to "hunt". by hunt, i mean suck into it's gigantic mouth. the only advantage smaller fish have is that they really aren't all that fast. hence the names of mine: pokey and whaley :)

i think they sort of look like oversized versions of the zamora cats they sell at petsmarts everywhere (which are AWESOME if you can get them to come out and school around during the day, i have 5 in a 29 i set up for my father, and i'm jealous i don't have room for them), but with a "sun spot" instead of the "midnight stars".

i have two, one is about 4.5 inches, one is right about 6...when i purchased them about 6 months ago, they were less than half this size, and i made the cardinal mistake of purchasing a "cool looking" fish before i really knew anything about them. i don't really expect them to reach the 18" size depicted at PC (i've seen quite a debate on this max. size within the limited information i've been able to find), but i wouldn't be surprised if they topped 1'. i think, anyway, they're interesting enough to plan a whole tank around!

[mwood322]

What about Arulius Barbs, or Clown Barbs, they get between 3-5 inches each, school fairly well, and as long as the gouramis are the semi-aggressive 4-6 inch ones shouldn't have a problem with them.

Added Benefit they are from South East Asia.

--Mia