stocking schooling fish

[deeleywoman]

so, i was just playing with yhbae's AquAdvisor program, and i was beating my brains out trying to get enough of each of the handful of species i want into the tank and i have to ask.... does it really make a difference if you take a fish that's "happier in groups of six or more" and only put five in the tank? could i put three harlequins and three scissortails in together and they'd be happy in their little blended family? or would i absolutely have to have six of each? this is such a headache lol

 

[eoibio]

It would be better to get 6 as they wont be happy and they will be shy and they wont feed if they aren't in groups of 6 +

 

[bitbot]

That is a good question!
Six seems to be the magic number, but I've never seen an explanation of why.
You can't be too dogmatic about this, because plenty of people can give examples of having smaller numbers of schooling fish which seem perfectly happy and healthy (including me).

In my experience (mostly with tetras) if you have a few different small species together, and some cover for them, it doesn't seem to matter if there are less than six of each species. They will probably still loosely school together sometimes.

Another thing to consider, and this is just a subjective opinion, is that you might start off wanting lots of different species, but having more individuals of fewer species often looks more pleasing to the eye once the novelty of having more species wears off...

 

[jwddboy]

Well the bigger the quantity, the happier they will be. Generally (this means more than six is good). However - you can mix with same size shoaling fish and get some good results. Generally if the fish are the only ones in there, or they are outnumbered/outsized by others in the tank they will probably hide more.

Have you thought about boosting your filter(s) and overstocking?

 

[ChrisK]

Generally the larger the number with most schooling fish the better. The fish will be more secure, and more in there natural state. I definately wouldn't just put 2-3 of any schooling fish.

 

[yhbae]

In fact, I managed to keep five harlequin rasbora over few years without problems before so obviously this varies from individual experiences. 6 is just a commonly suggested number.

 

[Kashta]

I think bitbot already mentioned why it's different between 3 or 6.. When there's 6 or more together, those fish school closely together. If there's less than this amount, they school more loosely. But in doing so, they feel less secure because they're not surrounded by enough fellow fish of the same species. That probably doesn't matter so much to us because we got to squeeze in one more type of fish that we wanted to. And to us, the fish still seem to be happy and healthy. But they're a lot more guarded, under a little more stress, and the environment isn't as comfortable for them.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The thing to understand about schoolers like tetras is that in the while they are not in schools of 6 or or 20, they school in the 100s. So in any tank, the more the better is always the case. My personal opinion is that the minimum for schoolers is 10 and even more is better. I do also realize this isnt always possible.

At one point I had over 60 cardinals in a 75 and it was a truly amazing sight to behold. However, over the years the school thinned and today it is down to the final 5 (moved to smaller digs). It looked much better the old way

 

[deeleywoman]

thanks for the feedback!

i'm only looking at three or four species, and two of them don't appear to need a "minimum number" to be happy; it's just the daggum harlequin rasboras and white clouds that are making this hard lol

 

[ct-death]

I think bitbot already mentioned why it's different between 3 or 6.. When there's 6 or more together, those fish school closely together. If there's less than this amount, they school more loosely. But in doing so, they feel less secure because they're not surrounded by enough fellow fish of the same species. That probably doesn't matter so much to us because we got to squeeze in one more type of fish that we wanted to. And to us, the fish still seem to be happy and healthy. But they're a lot more guarded, under a little more stress, and the environment isn't as comfortable for them.

^^ Well put

Most "schooling" fish do well in smaller groups 3-4 if there are a few other factors at play such as xadequate cover, other schooling fish of similar size and temperment, presence of a dither fish, etc., etc....

However, just to add to those comments already offered, the more individuals in a 'school' the more you wil begin to see their natural behaviors.

Another great example are Cory Cats! 2-3 and they interact with one another...4-5 and they play together and stay in the same areas, 6+ and they begin to build a family heirarchy and new behaviors are seen as they begin to feed off of one another in their habits and movements.

The same is true of schooling fish. And remember, not all schooling fish are created equal...