Would You Buy A Solitary Schooling Fish If...

[NonstickRon]

If you went to a petstore and they had a type of fish you were looking for, but it was a shoaling/schooling fish and they only had one of them...would you buy it if it looked healthy? It's as alone in the fish store as it would be in your tank unless you found another one somewhere else or mixed in similar types.

 

[joecoral]

If I already had a group in my tank, yes
If I didnt have any in my tank, no
I always buy a minimum of 6 of a shoaling fish

 

[shelaghfishface]

no, as above, poor little thing would be lost, and who was the horrible bugger that left him on his todd anyway no doubt the lfs will have more in soon tho

 

[Colin_T]

I would buy it and then track down more of them. If it is rare and hard to find others, then get some fish that resemble it so it can hang out with them until you get some more of that species.
I used to do it with rainbowfish. Sometimes the shops would only have 1 fish so I would grab it and put it in a community tank with other rainbowfish. It would be fine and when I managed to track down more of that type, I bought them and increased its group size.

 

[NonstickRon]

Thats kinda how I feel too Colin. I was wondering what people thought cause I wasn't sure how many julii cory's the local shop had, and he doesn't always get stuff back in again when he sells out of something since his shop is kinda small. I lucked out though and he had 2 in one tank and 2 in a different tank, so ended up with 4 at least. Thas a good amount for my desk tank.

 

[jourdy288]

Yeah, I would if there was only one left, particularly if it was kinda uncommon.