Mixed answers on shcools or shoals

[BradH]

Hey guys and gals. I guess like everything else fish, aquarium, and plant related there are always mixed answers. One person says this and one person says that. lol So I was just wondering what different opinions I would get here. I bought some pristella or x-ray tetras a while back. I only got 3 and not 5 or 6 as people say make a school. They seem to be doing great, just the 3 of them. So my question is do you always need to make a complete school or what? I mean I know you probably shouldn't buy 1 of this and 1 of that and have 20 different lonely fish in your tank, but are 3 or 4 ok as opposed to having to keep 6 or more all the time?

The lfs says it's ok, but we all know sometimes the people don't know that much that work at every fish store.

[jaidexl]

Just depends on the scenarios in the tank, other fish etc. changes somewhere else might have created a situation where they'd benefit better from a larger group.

Aggression and stress is sort of a balancing game and characins are one of those families where you can easily wind up with a few runts getting nipped up and killed off every few weeks or so, or else it works out fine. I personally have had good luck keeping one or two otos and corydoras rather than the suggested group, just never got around to building up a school of certain species but they did fine, a few are still around hanging out with other species.

[BruceWatts]

Schooling fish tend to do better in groups period. Your three fish might be doing well but what if one dies? Then you have only two and you will find that the less you have the more stress it puts on the remaining fish.

You must decide if you want to just get by or do what is best for your fish. Getting away with something is not the same as giving your fish the best possible environment to live in. Unless you don't have the room to add more fish to your tank I would add some more tetras to the school.

Besides watching schooling fish do their thing is one of the great joys of the aquarium hobby.

Bruce

[BradH]

Originally Posted by BruceWatts

Schooling fish tend to do better in groups period. Your three fish might be doing well but what if one dies? Then you have only two and you will find that the less you have the more stress it puts on the remaining fish.

You must decide if you want to just get by or do what is best for your fish. Getting away with something is not the same as giving your fish the best possible environment to live in. Unless you don't have the room to add more fish to your tank I would add some more tetras to the school.

Besides watching schooling fish do their thing is one of the great joys of the aquarium hobby.

Bruce

I agree with you on watching the schooling fish. It's awesome. I was just wondering what others had to say on the subject.

[JustOneMore21]

To me, 3 is a trio, not a school. 6, 7, 8+ is a school. Some people say 5 is ok....I don't have a problem with 5. 2 is a pair, 3 is a trio.

Schooling fish tend to be more comfortable (out more, swimming around as opposed to hiding) and tend to be less skittish when you have 6+. Once the numbers start dropping to 4 and 3, they aren't the same.


I would say, get the most that you can for your tank while leaving room for other fish and not overstocking. In a large tank, you should have room for 8-10+ small tetras. If you stick to 2 schools, you could have 12-14 of each most likely. They'd definitely be happier!

[Renegade545]

In smaller groups, and in some cases, a single fish will get singled out and bullied often until death occurs. In larger groups where more fish are present, this is much less likely to happen and will decrease the amount of stress on any one fish. Larger groups will show the schooling much better, the fish will be happier, less stressed, and will allow them to act more naturally.

I recommend increasing your shoal size.