Best small SCHOOLING fish?

[YourPalCM]

What small (3" or less) fish would you say "schools" the best? By that I mean...I know a lot of fish are considered "schooling" fish, but some clearly stick in packs more than others. For example, I know Tiger Barbs school, but a lot of times they are still off on their own.

I have a 46g tank with a number of Gouramis and would like to add 5-7 small fish to join them that pal around in a large group.

I know this is a vague question, but...

[zilla870]

neon, cardinal, rummynose tetras and there is always the resbora but they need larger number to be happy.

[Jchillin]

serpae and lampeye tetras...they school and do it all the time. I have 6 serpaes and 4 lampeyes. Really cool to watch.

[zilla870]

dont get serpae they are fin nipper. bad fish bad fish. lol. but they are prettty. lol

[YourPalCM]

Someone recommended Gold Barbs as one of the few fish that school almost exclusively in captivity since they haven't yet been over-bred as many of the other schooling fish have. Thoughts?

[lyquidphyre]

Serpaes can be fin nippers in groups of 6 or smaller. They aren't "bad fish", i have 8 in my 75 with no problems

I have two golden barbs as well, and they tend to stick with one another... but as far as more than 2 schooling, Im not sure.

[newhobbist]

Don't keep serpae tetra with gouramis. I had a large school of these tetras (8 of them), and they still shredded gouramis's fins. I had to return the tetras to LFS.

[Zagz]

I'm certainly no expert and don't have a vast amount of experience but I do love the neon and cardinal tetras. Colorful and entertaining to watch. They stick together like glue in my tank. Quite interesting to watch them swim around together.

[Blucat]

Black neon is interesting
Also pygmy catfish are quite cute

[zilla870]

pygmy cat forgot about them. they are schoolers too. get some panada corys they are very nice looking when they school.

Check my signature for some good schooling fish that live well together...

[cJw]

My vote is for rummynose tetras; they only get 2" long, school like old friends, and are gorgeous fish.

[zilla870]

tony your DAF school that cool.

[JHawk]

My tanks has small schools of the following:

Harlequin Rasbora-8-Cool little fish, so far have not stuck together too much.


Brilliant Rasbora-5 These are very cool...They stay near the top & hang together almost always. Very active & not shy. Nice green strip-kind of look like a giant black neon.


Neon & Cardinals-6-Hang at the bottom to middle areas. A little on the shy side. Beautiful colors. Smallish. Stick together like glue.

I'm quite happy with all of them. I might recommend the B Rasboras above them all.

[JHawk]

Here they are:

[zilla870]

they look alot like white clouds weird.

[apotocki]

I have 15 Rasbora's that always school at the mid-upper level of my 70 and also have 6 Rummy's that stay together at the mid-lower level. I think those are probably 2 of the better 'schoolers' but I believe the real key is to ensure you have enough fish to encourage schooling behavior (at least 6 and preferably 8-10)

Originally Posted by apotocki

I have 15 Rasbora's that always school at the mid-upper level of my 70 and also have 6 Rummy's that stay together at the mid-lower level. I think those are probably 2 of the better 'schoolers' but I believe the real key is to ensure you have enough fish to encourage schooling behavior (at least 6 and preferably 8-10)

Its also important not to have too many different fish in the tank, otherwise they tend to kind of get lost among all the different species and don't school as well.

Originally Posted by zilla870

tony your DAF school that cool.

Yeah, they don't really school, but you do often see three or four of them kind of hanging out together.

[dax29]

I agree with jchillin. The redeye tetra or lamp eyes (Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae) are the tightest schooling fish I've owned. They are also very hardy and peaceful. My dwarf neon rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox) don't get big and they hang together pretty well. I still say the redeye tetra schools really well. I've not owned some of the others mentioned so I cannot comment on them as well.