kelv85
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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I bought 6 tetras 3 days ago all was good until today I've noticed there all swimming by there selves and not in a group as they have done since I got them, is this normal?
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- Thread starter kelv85
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kelv85
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Thanks for the advice
Found an interesting article about schooling..
"schooling is a response to perceived threat. It the wild, predators are to be assumed, a given, and the individuals in the school stay on alert. In our tanks it requires no more than a few days for the fish to "learn" that the threat level is very low. Tight cohesive formation is unnecessary. So they scatter here and there, with conspecifics in sight, but no more than that. So we delight in seeing the school act like our idea of a school the first few days, and after that, rarely. Corydorus cats are especially good at that. In fish stores we see them moving back and forth in the tank as a group, a great sight. We do not realize that this is prompted by the fact that they have only been in the tank a day or so, and there are giants, potential predators (us) peering at them from only a foot or so away. Come back a week later. The same group of cats is sitting around the bottom, largely ignoring the giants going by. They have learned we are not predators after all and that there is no way to swim away. Open the tank top, and they start swimming again. The only predator they have seen lately, the net, is on the way. An immediate threat activates flight behavior. The influence of learning on instinctive behavior is obvious."
http://www.aquarianow.com/dynamics/general-freshwater-topics-2/schooling-fish-and-their-behavior-6/
"schooling is a response to perceived threat. It the wild, predators are to be assumed, a given, and the individuals in the school stay on alert. In our tanks it requires no more than a few days for the fish to "learn" that the threat level is very low. Tight cohesive formation is unnecessary. So they scatter here and there, with conspecifics in sight, but no more than that. So we delight in seeing the school act like our idea of a school the first few days, and after that, rarely. Corydorus cats are especially good at that. In fish stores we see them moving back and forth in the tank as a group, a great sight. We do not realize that this is prompted by the fact that they have only been in the tank a day or so, and there are giants, potential predators (us) peering at them from only a foot or so away. Come back a week later. The same group of cats is sitting around the bottom, largely ignoring the giants going by. They have learned we are not predators after all and that there is no way to swim away. Open the tank top, and they start swimming again. The only predator they have seen lately, the net, is on the way. An immediate threat activates flight behavior. The influence of learning on instinctive behavior is obvious."
http://www.aquarianow.com/dynamics/general-freshwater-topics-2/schooling-fish-and-their-behavior-6/
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kelv85
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Really good thanks for taking your time to reply
LyndaB
Aquarium Advice Addict
Very good advice and explanation given above. Many people really want a tightly schooling species and even though some species do naturally stick closer to each other, they don't really school.
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kelv85
Aquarium Advice Newbie
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This is our first aquarium, every time I've seen them before they have always stuck together, was just making sure this was normal behaviour
