mixing shoals/schools

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deeleywoman

All men are equal before fish.
Mar 9, 2009
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Newport News, VA
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I'm thinking about getting my 16gal bowfront up and running again, planted, with black sand and a Whisper 20 or 30, and I'm debating stock..... I have several species I'd like to include, but as it's not a very big tank, I don't have the space for five of each fish. What I'm wondering is, if I mix a few of each fish of similar size and color, will they school/shoal (as applicable) together as one group and be happy as if they were with "enough" of their own kind? I'm thinking of 3-4 each of:

Harlequin rasboras
Glowlight tetras
Bloodfin tetras
Leopard danios
Black neon tetras

Am I on the right track, or do I need to eliminate one of the species and get five of each?
 

Byron Amazonas

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Jul 22, 2013
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My suggestion is to consider small (in mature size) fish, or if you stay with some of those mentioned, only one or two species.

Shoaling fish live in groups of hundreds; obviously one does not need hundreds of each species, but over the years we have learned that five or six is the minimum number for most shoaling fish species. A couple years ago the first scientific study on the effects of fewer fish was done, and it proved without any doubt that with fewer numbers, the fish (even otherwise very peaceful species) tend to turn aggressive. It is the only way a fish can react to frustration and stress. Though sometimes they take the opposite path, and become so skittish and frightened that they refuse to eat and waste away. So there is a need to maintain a group.

Another aspect is that some species develop a hierarchy within the group in the aquarium. When there are two few, a "bully" often appears, and the result in stress, poor health and often death to the others.

And all these fish will be at their most colourful, and healthiest, with more rather than fewer. I have certainly seen evidence of this over the years.

You could easily have a group of the rasbora, I would suggest 7, in your tank. A second species if very carefully chosen can work; of those you mention, the glowlight tetra or black neon tetra would be the only ones that would. Danio are active swimmers, and there is insufficient space here for them to begin with. And Bloodfins can be nippy, so I would not risk them here. Or perhaps some substrate fish, like a group of five corys, or a whiptail (Rineloricaria parva) would complete things.

Moving on to the "dwarf" species, there are Ember Tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae), and six species of dwarf rasbora in the Boraras genus; Boraras brigittae, Boraras maculatus are two as examples. Nice red colour with all of these.

You intend plants, so that immediately allows you a bit more freedom for numbers, and all these fish prefer the safety of plants around them.

Byron.
 

deeleywoman

All men are equal before fish.
Mar 9, 2009
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Newport News, VA
www.etsy.com
My last build for this tank had 6 harlies and three (ridiculously active) khulis (I think they missed the memo about being supposed to be invisible lol), and everyone was extremely happy until we moved a year and a half later, and a sudden cold snap before I had put the heater back in wiped them all out. Colors were vibrant, everyone was active, I never saw harassment or damaged fins.
 

Fishfriend1

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Dec 11, 2009
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From experience I've found that two things tend to decide how well fish do together:

1) Size - If they are similarly sized they will tend to school together (as with my Black Neons and my Harlequin Rasbora).
2) Type of Activity - My Molly and my Neon Rainbowfish school together due to being active, fairly fast moving fish. The Rainbows also school with the neons and rasbora because they are active fish, despite size difference. However, I have never seen my Serpea Tetra and Raibows school due to such a different activity level.

The above said, you should stick to keeping just 1 school of fish in a 16gal tank. If you really needed to keep two different species, the Glowlights and the Black Neons would probably be the most similar and thus get along best.
 

rufioman

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Aug 16, 2010
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It's only 16g so I wouldn't go over five of a single schooler. You could try nano fish.
 
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