hey all, just a quick question here. when keeping tetras i know thay like to be in groups like 5 or 6 of the same species, but i think i remember reading somewere that they prefer to be in odd numbers. is this true? also is it better to have more ? ie 7 rather than 5. thanks alot

The bigger the group the safer they feel, The instant another fish comes near the shoal tightens up and they swim much closer together and change direction. This is to give the illusion of being bigger and makes a potential predator think twice before attacking. You always have an odd one in the shoal to act as leader, hence the nursery rhyme and the old school game of follow the leader, if you can then have 9 or 11

Well I was gonna say odd numbers don't make a difference, it sounds ridiculous, why would it??? There is of course a pecking order but it shouldn't make a difference if the total number of the shoal is odd or even. Now I am intrigued, if someone could clarify this it would be great.

I've never found it to make any difference.

Sounds like an old wives tale IMO.

Most things we are told nowadays are old wives tales but the nursery rhymes and old school games all have clues behind these, remember the school rhyme of ''ring a ring of roses'' blah blah and so was the follow the leader game some of the older people on here may remember playing as a kid many years ago. Apparently it comes from animals, always hunting in odd packs and fish swimming in odd shoals, there is always 1clear leader and if not the group wander because they have no decision maker just look at business we all have one manager at the top who the pack follow.

Might sound far fetched and believe it or not but it's true

thanks for everyone's input on this, i might be able to get 9 fish, but certainly no more as i only have a 20 gal tank. many thanks, kim

IMO there is no difference between odd or even as long as there is a far few of them together then they will act normally, i have kept them both in odd and even, from 7-10 and fond that they are more active in 10 as there are more of them. It will make no differnce one will always be the leader and there will always be a pecking order amonst them. Doesnt matter if its odd or even, just keep them in large groups, with 5 been the bare minimum, i would advice that 10 should be the minimum.

This post has been edited by andywatson29: Jul 19 2008, 04:58 PM

i have tried countless times to keep a big group of these guys, and it just seems as i add them a couple always die off. right now i have the most i've ever been able to maintain for any period of time, a school of 7. i believe 6 of them are females and there's only one scrawny male.
for being schooling fish, my neon tetras barely school and when they do it's never in "tight" groups. also when the light is off they always seem to bicker.

anyways, i've really always tried to get 6 or more. i like the idea of a big school but my fiancee wants other fish besides tetras so i couldn't get 40 neons like i thought of doing

The best Shoaling fish has to be the Rainbow sailfish, Tetras always look pony to be honest and even Zebras look better than them, either way stick to odd numbers.