Cardinal Tetras

[Gordon88]

Hi
I have just recently bought 6 cardinal tetras, they shoal some of the time but then some of the time they split off sometimes into two or threes and sometimes individually. I know they are a shoaling fish but is this normal?
They are in a 190l tank with:
2 Keyhole cichlids
3 Honey gouramis
2 african filter shrimps

Thanks

 

[RadaR]

Yes, nothing to worry about. They obviously feel there are no threats and spilt off. My Harlequins never shoaled until I added a Krib (didn't add Krib to make them shoal).

 

[Gordon88]

I have two keyholes in there, but they are still small as they are young, when they get bigger and older, will the cardinals shoal then??

 

[RadaR]

They might and they might not, there's no real certainty.

 

[millym]

means that your cardinals are happy & feel safe surely this is better than having a group of fish in your tank that feel threatened all the time???

 

[jonny-5]

was gonna post but millym beat me to what i was gonna say

 

[Rafael Dilone]

Maybe if you add more cardinals they will school more often. Also cardinal tetra can be in a school except a few cardinals. That could mean that the rest of the cardinals are trying to isolate the others so they might not catch the disease the others have. Im not saying this is the cause.

 

[Chris_Wood]

I really doubt they will shoal!

As others have already said they are obviously happy and therefore have no reason to keep darting around together!

Now put in a nice fat Angel and that may get them shoaling (Joking - don't do this if they are juveniels... ...they are likley to go missing one by one )

CW

 

[PaulEbs]

I found that to get the full effect of shoaling cardinals/neons, you need atleast 15 in a large enough tank..

..They look stunning with a sandy, bogwood background, and they seem to shoal more often when in a larger group.