Can A School Be More Than One Species?

[trianglekitty]

Still researching what to stock in my 20 gallon...

I'm torn between rummy nosed tetras and Rasaboros. I've read up a lot on both, and I keep seeing comments that they "school well with other fish". Does this mean I could get a mixed school of, say, three rummy noses and 3 rasaboras? Or would that only result in unhappy, stressed fish? If I can only get one type, I'll go with the rasaboras because they seem hardier.

If it helps, these are the other fish I know I'll have-

1 dwarf gourmai
4 feeder guppies (They are male and full grown are tiny- less than an inch. They look kind of like mini Endlers)
3 cory cats (I know they do better with a bigger group, but even on here I see a lot of tanks with less, so I'm hoping this is okay. If not, any suggestions for a bottom cleaner that isn't any sort of pleco?)

The tank has both silk and live plants, and floating plants at the top.

 

[Wills]

No is the simple answer - you occasionally get it working with similar species ie some rummy nose might school with neons etc but even that is a compromise and less than ideal.

To be honest you could go with both and up the numbers of cory catfish. If you have not already got the cories get a smaller growing species like panda. Then your stocking would be something like

1 Dwarf Gourami
4 Guppies
6 Harlequin Rasbora
6 Rummy Nose Tetra
6 Panda Cory Cats

IMO a very nice mixed tank, no really messy fish and majority of the tank is stocked with small schooling fish that will appreciate the numbers. Try to get a female dwarf gourami though as a male might nip the guppies a bit.

Wills

 

[trianglekitty]

No is the simple answer - you occasionally get it working with similar species ie some rummy nose might school with neons etc but even that is a compromise and less than ideal.

To be honest you could go with both and up the numbers of cory catfish. If you have not already got the cories get a smaller growing species like panda. Then your stocking would be something like

1 Dwarf Gourami
4 Guppies
6 Harlequin Rasbora
6 Rummy Nose Tetra
6 Panda Cory Cats

IMO a very nice mixed tank, no really messy fish and majority of the tank is stocked with small schooling fish that will appreciate the numbers. Try to get a female dwarf gourami though as a male might nip the guppies a bit.

Wills

That sounds awesome, but honest question- would that be overstocking? That's what I'm very been stressing over, to the point I was adding up every half inch of fish. Or does it depend on the bioload of the individual species? I know cory cats are supposed to be pretty low bioload.

The gourami is male, but he's already in with the guppies and has been fine with them, though I need to add him to the new tank last because he's proven he'll pick on new fish.

 

[Wills]

The inch per gallon rule is not worth any amount of stress all those fish produce low levels of waste and in 3 of the 4 species the need for a school out weigh the increased bioload on the tank.

Also when you say you are adding up numbers to the half inch are you working on are you going with max size or average size? Are you going to include water displacement from the substrate and decor? And what kind of fish are you basing the inch of fish on? As an inch of dwarf gourami is totally different to an inch of the harlequins?

The reason I ask these questions is basically to highlight how subjective stocking is and all the little rules that some people insist on just spoil the hobby when realistically a regular maintenance regieme and a decent filter is going to be fine. The main issues would arrise if you were wanting to keep some small but messy fish or low numbers of large fish or highly active fish like zebra danios.

So long as regular maintenance and water changes are carried out as normal its going to be absolutely fine

Wills

 

[stubert]

id say get a good handful of each type but they will school together. My neons and cherry barbs (cherry barbs still small) used to all swim around with each other, ive had harlequins schooling with danios before aswell. Wouldnt recommend a school of random fish tho prob wouldnt work that well.

Also inch per gallon rule is a bit extreme depending on what type of fish you have, if you have peachful fish then i wouldnt bother with it as long as your filter is good enough.