Shoaling Fish

[chrismr]

Having seen a post recently detailing the differences between schooling and shoaling, it got me curious.

Are there any proper shoaling fish for in the community aquarium? I know of lots of fish which school, but do no spend all their time in small group doing synchronised swimming...

Probably the closest i have come across are harlequin rasbora, but even they spend a lot of time apart.

I am always on the lookout for a small community fish that will always stick together... anybody know of any?

 

[BettaUK]

Most the Danio species stick together, I have 10 adults and if one swims off in the other direction the others follow. Cardinals also stay in a shoal if you have enough of them.. they look amazing in large numbers once they have grown on and get their full colours.

Pearl Danio

Cardinal Tetra

HTH

Lawrence (BettaUK)

 

[Dangerousdan]

.

 

[chrismr]

Whoops! Seems I got the 2 mixed around! And only a day after reading about it... thanks for the correction

So, in that case, I am wondering what the best schooling fish are.

Danios and cardinals, from my experience are good schoolers, but still spend a lot of time doing their own thing.

My three lined pencil fish stick together pretty well, but they don't do much swimming around. They tend to just hover...

 

[andywg]

Fish will school when the right conditions arise, the only real times I can think of fish schooling is to avoid predation once a known predator has been spotted.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yeah, out of the fish I can think of, the faster movers seem to school more... Danios, for instance, but as andy said, you'd have to have a 'predator' to properly observe it.

 

[chrismr]

Hmmm, my keyholes are probably about the most threatening thing I have.... i.e. I have nothing predatory

Am quite happy with my three lined pencils. Was just wondering about the subject.

 

[prankster705]

Glass catfish school in my opinion, but don't move much...