Fish to make others school

I think Tiger Barbs would help.

More of one school is important

IMO, having a LOT of one sort of fish is really important. Like 15 or 20 or 30 neons (or rasboras), then just 6 of either the serpaes or the cherry barbs.

Try to think like a fish, a school is only important if there are enough of Your Kind for you to get lost in the crowd if you feel threatened. Picture yourself on the sidewalk of a major city, an empty sidewalk. A scary person comes toward you, threatening, carrying a knife. How many people need to be on that sidewalk with you for you to not be afraid of a scary person coming toward you... 3, 4, no, 12, 25, maybe. Certainly if there were 300 people with you the feeling of being threatened might be less. Now if they all looked just like you, same size and same uniform, it might take a few less. Could you blend into a crowd of 12 or 15 guys dressed just like you? But what if there were only 5, would you try to get lost in the middle of them, or just run away?

Excellent post anonapersona! Very very good analogy (I think you would call it that?)

I think in a 55 gallon, if you got 12 of each of those fish it would look so crowded and they couldn't really school properly.

I have 2 silver dollar (coin) sized blackskirt tetra and maybe 5 quarter sized ones. the leader of the school is a 5" silver dollar :huh:

The gouramis might work, but it would most likely only be a temporary fix. Once they realize that the fish are not a threat, they'll be back to their old ways!! I would say the tank is also pretty well stocked, and the fish don't really have a whole lot of room to school properly. A couple of the schools in my 180g will school occasionally, but it is only when the whole group rushes down to the other end of the tank if someone spooks them. I have a few balas (2 of which are about 4-5") in with about 10 neons and the neons still won't school much b/c the balas are so docile :mad2: !!!

nomadofthehills said:

I understand, but like I said, it is not my tank. I understand schooling principles.

So are you saying that I should not get a fish to make them "school"?

Would I be better off getting more of each kind?

Click to expand...

I suggest getting more of ONE kind, keep 6 of the other kind and GET RID OF THE REST, at least all of the mid-level swimmers. You could keep cory catfish(bottom swimmer), kuhlie loaches (bottom swimmer), hatchet fish(top swimmer but jumps), there are probably more examples of non-mid-level swimmers that would work.

What I do NOT suggest is getting more of each sort. You have 30 fish, probably about the right number, in total. You probably do not need *more* fish, just *different* fish.

I would suggest 15 (to 18) of one sort of tetra or rasbora, 6 of another aggressive sort of terta or barb, and 6 (or 9) cory catfish all of the same sort. Same number of fish, but you have enough to get some schooling behavoir in the bunch of 15, you have one bully to chase the school to make them need to school, and some cory catfish who are just so cute everyone ought to have a bunch. Then bunch the decorations so stuff is on the left and stuff is on the right and it is pretty open in the middle, so the fish have to cross the middle to get from here to there, so they may school as they do it.

I was pleased with the cardinals as the main group, with serpae tetras as the minor group. The raspboras or the black neons might be a good main group, I've not had black neons so I don't know. The serpae tetras are great for the bullies, though the cherry barbs or lemon tetras may be OK, again, I have not had those so I don't know.

IMO, what you need to be sure to do is to have a school be fish all the same color and size as much as possible, so the idea of hiding in the crowd makes sense for them. And the bully school should be a totally different color and species than the schooling school. So, don't mix lemon tetras and serpae tetras, they are different colors of the same thing, you need to be able to tell the teams apart.