How important are the group suggestions?

[mxmelba]

I currently have a 55 gallon tank - not planted, it contains:

5 tiger barbs
1 sterbai cory - saw should have 4
1 albino cory - saw should have 4
3 harlequin respora - saw should have 5
3 zebra danio - saw should have 5
4 neon tetras - saw should have 5
2 glo tetras - can't find on the widget
2 plecos
2 mollies yellow - should have 1:2 MF ratio, need to see what I have
3 black skirt tetras - saw should have 5
4 glowlight tetras - saw should have 5
2 red phantom tetras - saw should have 5

So, if I added the additional fish to make the widget happy I would be adding 18 fish!!!! Is it necessary? How can you tell if the fish are not happy? The only one who seems unhappy is the albino cory.

 

[trennamw]

In some cases you find out when the fish gets sick. Stressed fish get sick, happy fish stay well.

As I understand other risks are aggression, nipping. Sometimes they just hide. More experienced people can better inform.

Also the glo fish, from what I understand, will school with their non-gmo counterparts. So the glow tetras school with the "skirt" tetras and the danios have a glow counterpart they will school with too.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Individual fish will sort of school with non specifics. They behave better if they can shoal with their own species.

(Personally noted- black neon (H herbertaxelrodi) glowlight (H. Erythrozonus)
Shoal together when mixed, it's a loose aggregation, a more uniform tighter shoal can be observed when kept with their own kind, shoals often separate into individual species groups forming two separate schools under duress, this leads me to believe they have the ability to identify species) they can see in colour so it doesn't surprise me.

A solitary schooling fish will seek the company of hopefully non predatory species in a bid to feel secure, or it will hide.

I think you may be overstocked if you perform that move.
(Personally a giant single species shoal per tank is unbeatable every time)