medium-sized schooling fish for 125g?

dethjam316

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Apr 6, 2003
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south of nowhere, north of nothing
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!
 
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...
 
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
 
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?
 
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.
 
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