[fishscale]

How do you get your fish to school? I've heard a lot of people say that their fish end up not schooling, and that you need something in the tank to scare them into it.

 

[spypet]

I recently moved a dozen Ender's males from a tank where they were menaced, to a species tank, and now they are schooling like crazy day and night. A menace fish may help, but I think what helps even more is open spaces for the school to maneuver especially along the glass, and water flow for the school to dart in and out of.

 

[evercl92]

I added a 5inch red tail shark to a 180gal tank with 15 black skirts (who were all over the place) and they started schooling in 10 mins.

 

[crazie.eddie]

If you're talking about your tetras in your 10 gallon tanks, then that's becuase there's not enough room for them to school. If you plan to move your tetras into the 55 gallon tank, then they school, since there's room.

 

[ikuzo]

fish tends to group together (school) when they feel threatened. getting some bigger fish sometimes help make them think there's a predator so they would school, but this is only apply if you got a lot of them, prefferably more than 10 fish. this happened to my neon / cardinal tetras. they scatter at first, then after i put some adult bosemani rainbows they school a lot. i put out the rainbows later though, as i found out they hunt red cherries. some fish like the red nose tetra school naturally.

 

[fishscale]

No, I understand that they won't school in my 10 gallon, but when I make the move to the 55 gallon, whether or not certain fish school will play a role in my selection.

 

[kevbshields]

I've found some species to be better schoolers than others. The best that I've encountered are Pristella ("X-Ray") Tetra and Diamond Tetra. To some extent, Serpae and Black Phantoms would come in second.

My Lemons and Bleeding Hearts would come in third; they tend to fuss with one another more than school, but sometimes they take the notion.

Anyhow, good luck and I hope this helps a little.

Kev.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Yes, when you move them into the 55 gallon tank, they will shoal. Prior to my 125 gallon tank, most of my current fish (including harlequin rasboras) shoaled in the tank. I also used to have neon tetras that shoaled as well in the same tank. When I moved the harlequins in my 125 gallon (6' long), the shoaling looked allot nicer, compared to a 55 gallon (4' long) tank.

 

[fishscale]

Ah yeah, I have diamond tetras. Even in the 10 gallon they tend to follow each other around. I was thinking more along the lines of neon tetras though, everyone always has those really pretty pictures of them schooling, but then I hear about them not schooling too. Just wondering.

 

[volatile]

I would hope that < 10 gallons means doesn't mean that the fish won't school. I have a 5 gallon ADA tank and I was hoping to get fish that would school. If you look at the 5 gallon ADA tanks on aquaforestaquarium.com, it seems that all those tetras and rasboras are schooling.

Dufus has posted 4 of the tanks in 1 link.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/47759-2-5-gallon-elb-baes.html

 

[fishscale]

Are those things really 5 gallons? My raspboras look a lot bigger than that in their 10.

 

[fishscale]

Then again, I don't have microraspboras

 

[volatile]

Those tanks are either Mini M (5.4 gallons) or Mini S (3.5 gallons). You can tell they are the Mini line of tanks because of light that it has attached on the left side. Those lights are only made for those 2 size tanks. How cardinal tetras and rummy noses can look so small in that tank I'll never know. I thought they got up to 2-3 inches? They must be newborn fry or something. The Boraras micros are only .5 inches full grown. How big are yours?

Are those things really 5 gallons? My raspboras look a lot bigger than that in their 10.

 

[Got Fish?]

serpaes will school some what, but not as much as maybe neons, i've seen those fish school ike theres' no tommrrow

 

[hoa101]

Rummy-Nose Tetras are the schooling fish. Just make sure you have enough. Probably not this many though. :icon_eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWj71L7khPE

 

[Raul-7]

That's somewhat true. Fish school as a predator deterrent and thus you would need to replicate that in an aquarium. Cichlids usually do the trick.

My Ember tetras will school from time to time. It's really interesting to watch them swim in formation - somewhat like the H. bleheri in that video. However, most of the time they stay in a loose shoal and break into little groups. This could be due to my small tank size though (20L).

BTW, the aquarium in that video is really large. If I remember correctly, it's 300x70x80cm. I think the aquarium footprint has an impact on schooling, wouldn't you think so?

 

[nismo tetra]

I found a new schooling fish (to me). They school like crazy in my 20 gallon. They are brown pencil fish. See my thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/95047-brown-pencil-fish.html
They look awesome. Some corydoras school very well too. I have 3 corydoras (undescribed specie) and they are constantly following each other. My cardinals are a bit spread out, but they are always in the same general region. When I put some in my grandmas 75 gallon, they got in a nice tight school. Looked awesome.

 

[blackandyellow]

I got a group of 6 red eye moenkhausia tetras and they are constantly grouping. I got them as dither fish for the silver dollar tank but they are so nice I´m thinking about putting them in the 100 gal planted.

Corys are always together, my group of 4 is always hanging out together. I´ve been trying to get 4 more but haven´t found the same species.