Schooling fish combos....

[MAM]

okay, toying with some more new fish combos.
would like to have harlequinn rasboras, rummy nose tetras, blood fin tetras, and cherry barbs. what is the mininum size school for each that you would recommend based on your personal experience with any of these fish?

 

[CFC]

Personally i think that a school of fish should consist of at least 5 individuals although with smaller species a minimum of 10 looks better.

 

[zull]

hi

i've have 6 harlequin and 9 rummy noses, in my experience the only ones that i find stay in schools all the time are my rummy noses, they stay pretty close together when moving about the tank. the harlequins are very seldom together or theyhave mini schools, 3 or four together and then split up again.

the blood fin tetras and cherry barbs i can't comment on, but i have heard that you need at least 6 or 7 for each kind, someone else correct me if i'm wrong.

any of these are great but i like my rummy noses the best, they are so cute, and fun to watch.

 

[Sondan]

At a local fish store they have a huge tank,,,I am not sure of the size but it must be over 200 gallons. It is built into a wall so you can look at it from front or back. I have seen Harleys school with as little as 6 fish in the tank. But to get the full effect of the schooling it should be at least 8. I say this because through out different times of the year they would have different numbers and kinds of fish in there. The best one was when they had 8 neons in it. You could watch them school very easily because they could swim about 6 feet across and probably 3 to 4 feet up or down. I hope this helps.
Signed,
Sondan

 

[Alien Anna]

It sounds fine except cherry barbs are not schooling fish and may actually be a little intolerant of their own kind. Best to have a pair or maybe a male with a few females.

 

[MAM]

okay, so only one or two cherries, can deal with that. are harlequinns really schoolers? never seem to school at on lfs, and at the others they never have more than 3 or 4 in a tank (which i thought was odd).

 

[Sondan]

Yes Harleys do school. Again the tank from the pet shop had 6 of them and they would school sometimes. The reason I don't think they schooled more was just the number of them in the tank.
Signed,
Sondan

 

[cassandra]

i agree with CFC