schooling fish

[bigmac1878]

i have a few questions about schooling fish.
1. how many fish are needed to make a school?
2. are there any detrimental effects to not being in a school? ie loss of school mates etc.
3. would new additions to the school be accepted or be forced out and killed by existing school?

 

[rich311k]

Depends on the type of fish.

1. Generally 6 tetras is considered the minimum amount.

2. A lone schooling fish is generally more stressed since he used to strength in numbers.

3. Again depends on the fish. In general tetras will accept new school members without issue.

 

[HannahJ]

I believe 4-5 is the bare minimum for schooling fish, and when left solitary, they will become stressed, which can lower their immune capabilities. Keeping only two or three fish of a schooling species can result in one being heavily bullied by the other(s). Almost always new additions to schools will be easily accepted (after perhaps some light harrassment), with the exception of some species of fish, such as piranhas, which live in family groups and will kill outsiders. Some fish will school with similar species (for example, a danio will school with a danio, be it spotted, striped, etc), and having a school of fish around will often calm other fish, even solitary ones, through the "dither" effect (ie, seeing other fish in the open as a sign of a lack of predators).

I hope all of this has helped a little!

[EDIT] Here is a link you might find helpful:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/schooling.htm

 

[Stretch]

I bought 7 neons, two died recently, the remaining 5 are schooling together all the time. They are the only fish in my 29g right now.

 

[JustOneMore20]

The minimum is usually 4. But remember that fish swim in huge schools in the wild. The more you can have, the better.

Usually fish don't school in an aquarium, unless they are threatened (by a big fish most likely), but they do hang out together and find strength in numbers.

 

[HannahJ]

I'll add on a little bit more here: As JustOneMore20 said, schooling fish don't nessecarily stay in one tight clump (or really any sort of obvious school) in a tank--for instance, danios will be all over a tank and hardly ever bunched together--but be aware that there are some species of fish that will, even when not feeling threatened. I've found that Buenos Aires tetras are the latter, preferring to stay very close to each other in small groups (the exception is usually at feeding time, then it's every tetra for himself).

Hope this helps some more!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I generally don't go with less than 6 for a school. That is my bare minimum for a school.

 

[bigmac1878]

what about white clouds? how do they act in a small school(5/6)? i've seen them and they don't group together, they just hang out with each other ocasionally, sometimes meet up and hang around. never lunch together though. i was told that these were a schooling fish. also that they were placid, but i've seen them displaying their fins and chasing each other. i don't know if this is a male orientated/breeding ritual.

 

[HannahJ]

I think it was mentioned before, but a lot of schooling fish don't actively school, so to speak, unless they are feeling threatened. They just need to have a certain number of their species with them so they feel safe should a threat arise. White clouds are schooling fish, but that largely just means that they need others of their species around to thrive. What you've described is very typical behaviour, especially in regards to the food, since then they are not under any threat but rather competing for sustenence. Not being grouped together then increases their chance for food. As far as the chasing behaviour goes, unless there is damage being done (torn fins, bites) or only one fish is being picked on, it's pretty common stuff. Just make sure there's no serious harrassment and everything is fine.

Hope that helps!

 

[HannahJ]

Oh, and it has been my experience that there's largely not much difference in the behaviour of fish in schools, be the school 5 strong or 20, so long as the tank size is appropriate to the school size. If a tank is very large, then the fish may stay closer to each other, but otherwise the difference should be minimal.

(Disclaimer: that's just what I've seen with friends' tanks. I've never kept larger schools, so I could be wrong about their behaviour.)