If By Schooling You Mean School Fight

[Fawah40]

3 Skirt Tetra
2 Mickey Mouse Platy
2 mystery snails
1 opaline gourami
1 Bamboo shrimp

20 US gallons

Above is what I had (critter wise), everything I read/was told said Skirts should have at least 6 so after my tank cycled I got 3 more. I had 3 pretty peaceful skirts, now I seem to have semi-non-stop aggression/battles. 2 have ripped dorsal fins and the smallest of the 6 doesn't come out from behind the driftwood except to snatch up some food.

It's only been 3 days, should this get better?

 

[Danbarb]

I had 12 black skirts, and had to reduce my stock so I gave my friend 6 of these. Even with 6 in the tank because the numbers had changed, they became quite aggressive at times which took me by surprise.

After 3 or 4 days they settled down and 6 seemed fine. I don't have black skirts anymore but they may be re-establishing order after a change in stock?

I personally don't see it getting better. I would remove the aggressor, if you can work out which one or ones they are. If your fish seem fine sometimes it's best to not adjust things too much. I've done this many times, where I think for example that some of my barbs need more company... which tbh worked for them as it removed aggressiveness.

Just my experience so far, really.

 

[Fawah40]

I had 12 black skirts, and had to reduce my stock so I gave my friend 6 of these. Even with 6 in the tank because the numbers had changed, they became quite aggressive at times which took me by surprise.

After 3 or 4 days they settled down and 6 seemed fine. I don't have black skirts anymore but they may be re-establishing order after a change in stock?

I personally don't see it getting better. I would remove the aggressor, if you can work out which one or ones they are. If your fish seem fine sometimes it's best to not adjust things too much. I've done this many times, where I think for example that some of my barbs need more company... which tbh worked for them as it removed aggressiveness.

Just my experience so far, really.

Thats just it, I watch the tank quite a bit after the kids are in bed (relaxing) and no one fish is Mike Tyson; they just seem to be nudging each other to be top dog. I'll let it go for a few more days, other then some ripped fins and the hiding small fry no one seems beat down.

Its funny, my Opaline could give a rats #16##### who is in the tank as long as they don't get in the way of the food (thought he'd be pushing them all around).

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I've read comments by a number on TFF that they didn't have problems with black skirts as long as the shoals were big enough. I was surprised because years ago whenever I had them I just found mine to be too aggressive. At times they just seemed downright mean. I likewise often found the tricos (3spot, blue, gold and opalines) to be capable of being quite aggressive. I believe yours is just happy because it perceives no problem at point and feels it is basically alone (no other gourami or other fish it really cares about.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Fawah40]

Yes, I've read comments by a number on TFF that they didn't have problems with black skirts as long as the shoals were big enough. I was surprised because years ago whenever I had them I just found mine to be too aggressive. At times they just seemed downright mean. I likewise often found the tricos (3spot, blue, gold and opalines) to be capable of being quite aggressive. I believe yours is just happy because it perceives no problem at point and feels it is basically alone (no other gourami or other fish it really cares about.)

~~waterdrop~~

Yes he is the only opaline/Gourami in the tank and seems quite satisfied with it so I won't mess that up (he's my daughters favorite). She won't name him until she is secure he won't die (We only lost 1 but she's sensitive). Today they have seemed to calmed down, they all, after the lights are out, follow the same fish (one of my "veterans") and don't seem quite so hostile.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I always liked the markings and colorations on the Opalines the best among all the trico color variations (the golds didn't exist yet back when I had these.) WD