do we really know what they want??? ( another caffeine thought of the day )

Magnum Man · Aug 15, 2026

so I’m not really disputing the group sizes of schooling fish, but do we really know what they want, if they had the choice??? sipping my caffeine this morning and looking at my tetra tank… my jumbo cardinal tetra , that had out lived its original school, was given another big group, yet seems just as content to be by itself, it doesn’t hang with the main group, but does collect a few followers ( with the cardinals I can’t tell them apart, so I don’t know if it’s always the same fish or not )

I had a similar rummy nose, same story, but that one joined the group and was assimilated…

I have a mature spotted silver dollar ( I think a female ) that has been in the tetra tank for years… a very good resident it does not taste even the smallest of the cardinals… I had been planning on moving it over 2 tanks, to the rough and tumble silver dollar tank, where the pecking order is challenged weekly ( no one is physically beaten up, but it is a very cichlid type environment… the spotted silver dollar currently goes where it wants, and seems to like to sit and watch all the emperor tetras scrap for dominance, but shows no signs of wanting to join in, in the chasing around… I almost hate to add it to the dollar tank, where it would be subjected to it… the spotted is on an equal playing field as the rest of the dollars size wise, but seems content where it is…

I’d hate to have the fish think… “I wish that big ugly guy would have left me where I was, instead of having to chase around with these new guys”

point being, do we really know??? perhaps a lot of these fish would be loners in the wild, at least for as long as, until they were eaten for not being part of the group…

gwand · Aug 15, 2026

I find that with my tetras and pencils, fish in groups of 10 or more, there is always one fish that doesn’t want to join the pack.

bgarthe · Aug 15, 2026

I honestly do feel the shoal as a group has less stress and is more content. In my 5 tetra tanks, it is clear that the “safety in numbers” feeling exists. Now, interestingly……when the shoals of my cardinal, green neon, diamond, red cherry, yellow phantom, green fire, gold, and congo tetras feel totally at ease, individuals often venture out and swim around separately and explore…..only to shoal up when I walk in or move too fast by accident. :nod:

Most all of the videos I’ve seen of these fish in the wild show them in shoals/schools with some hanging in super shoals. Yes, there are the occasional loners. Sometimes they seem to prefer it and other times it indicates something is amiss with that particular fish. I have also seen that loner fish join up with a shoal after said shoal has been enlarged or the tank decor was rearranged. :fish:

Do we really know for sure……..? Probably not.
Bottom line…….we merely do our best and adjust accordingly. A loner fish is FAR better off in your well cared for tank than some pet shop or distributor’s holding tank.

Finally…..your dedication to care, concern, and happiness of your fish is admirable, but I assure you that that loner fish is not gonna think (nor is it capable of thinking)…. “I wish that big ugly guy would have left me where I was, instead of having to chase around with these new guys”

Finally, there are times when this old goon seeks being around people and times when I desire solitude. :banana3:

Vs

GaryE · Aug 15, 2026

Do we really know what WE want?

I think we can figure out some broad outlines of what they need. Are we right? Maybe...

There's a process I try to follow. First if I find a new to me fish interesting, I make sure I'm not putting my convenience first. If I figure I've caught "gottahaveanewone-itis", I try to rein it in. I You have to figure out the fish, and not start by trying to make the fish fit something in your mind. So I try to look at the negatives first, and see if I can provide what's needed to make them not be problems. I don't want problems, so this stage isn't some big eco-kindness thing. It's practical.

I also don't want to kill any of my pets, so good conditions for what they need are essential.

Then I try to find info. What exists on youtube, of them in the wild? I don't care about in aquarium videos. The tank could have been set up yesterday and could be torn down tomorrow. I want wild footage.

You don't always get it, but if you do, watch them. You see corys running in little groups, but lots of little groups around them. Tetras often shoaling, some Cichlids guarding caves, others acting differently.

You can use the scientific name. It isn't chosen to sell fish, but to provide info. If it's a new fish, a Hyphessobrycon sp whatever tetra, then you can look up similarly shaped fish from the same Genus and see what's there on them. Wild info, aquarist info, scientific PDFs, papers... Part of what this is is an attempt to stop impulse purchases, I'll admit.

Then I look for collecting reports, species descriptions and online commentary from credible, respected sources. You get an idea of whether they're shoalers, pair formers, solitary grumps, etc. If a hobbyist has a reputation, I'll go to articles. As well, if they write intelligently and seem serious, their articles will do. I avoid sellers and "personalities".

So you have a pile of info on the fish, and then you can figure out how best to keep it. Yeah, you can be wrong. I missed the fact my first splash tetras were going to be beautiful murderers, for example. Ouch, all around.

If the fish has inner thoughts, you're out of luck reading those. But if you focus on observable biological needs, evolutionary history and connections, reading and checking video sources, you get an idea of how they'd live if we weren't around. Human extinction is probably what they really want.