[Kisho3]

Yesterday, I went to a local fish store and bought seven danios: 3 golden whites, 2 zebras, and 2 leopards. They're currently in my ten gallon. I was wondering if i could stock more fish in it. Or is my tank pretty much already stocked? I'm a little bit dissapointed that they don't school as they did at the pet shop, oh well. Some tend to wander off by themself, or hide. Maybe they're just exploring the tank? In addition, they seem to not like pink flakes, but will take white/brown flakes. Is there a reason to this?

 

[lauraleellbp]

IMO you've already got a pretty good bioload for a 10gal tank. Zebra danios are active fish, and need their swimming room. You aren't seeing much schooling behavior because there's not really enough room for it in your tank. In a larger tank, with many more fish, you'd see more schooling.

Some fish are picky eaters. Could be they're not used to seeing "pink" food and so haven't identified those as food yet, or they may taste different and the fish not like the taste. Danios usually aren't that finicky, though, so I suspect after a while they'll start eating the pink flakes as well.

This tank was cycled before adding the fish, right?

 

[Kisho3]

They were kept in a smaller tank at the pet store, yet they still schooled. Oh well. I've had the tank running for several weeks now thanks

 

[Church]

Your pet store keeps fish in tanks smaller than 10 gallons?!

Most LFS tanks are overstocked, and in its own way, overstocking has a tendency to bring out schooling behaviors. Danios do like to dart around, which I think would cause them to school more, but they just don't have the room. If you had an extra powerhead lying around, you could increase the current in there. Faster currents are a way of "tricking" your fish into thinking they have more room than they actually do. This always worked for my harlequin rasbora when I kept a school of them in a 10g.

 

[Noahma]

My Danios only school when scared, or stressed. They never did any sort of schooling in my 10 gal. I only witnessed it when I moved them to the 36 gal. Even then, they only held together until they were used to the tank. Now they are sometimes seen in groups of 2-3 when they are moving about, more common to see them alone flying around the tank. My Glowlights however constantly school in the large tank, when they would not in the 10 gal. It might be worth looking into some of the tetras and replacing your Danios if you wish to see more of a schooling behavior. 10 gal. tanks are pretty limited to the stock you can hold. (main reason for going to my 36 gal.)