getting tetras to school

[quitters]

Hey there i want about 12 gold tetras in my tank, one fish shop has 5 and another has 7...

are these fish less likely to stick together because they are potentially from different places? or even just different fish shops?

also, will they still school if i dont have any even remotely agressive fish in the tank?

i want them to stick together and look pwetty

thanks for any help!

im getting a red-tail shark so they should stick together, but do u think they would split up into their seperate LFS schools?

[rich311k]

What store they come from will not make any difference in their schooling behavior. If they feel threatened they will all school together. Wether they will or not is another story. My red-eyes kind of form a loose group but not a tight school, unless they are afraid, which is usually when my arm is in the tank. The angels dont scare them at all. They just go about their business.

[quitters]

thank you heaps, since your being so awesomely helpful and active any chance u could check out my 'finished cycle' thread in the getting started forum?

sorry im just really excited :S

[tbonem91]

if they are 100% happy, content and feel safe, they probably wont school much at all.

and aren't "Gold tetras" one of the dyed fish on the market or am I thinking of something else?

[Menagerie]

I have kept larger groups of "schooling" fish, but unless they are threatened, they usually group together, but never tightly. I have my doubts about the red tailed shark getting the tetras to school, unless he snacks on them occasionally. Also, if this is for the 28 gallon in your sig, the red tail is not an appropriate fish for that size of tank.

[TwoHobbies]

I agree with the others, when first added to the tank my groups of 5-9 fish schooled, but--as time has gone on, and with no threat they seldom school.

[Fishyfanatic]

I bought all schooling fish for the community tank because I thought it would be pretty cool to have 4 schools of fish. That never happened. I guess they never felt threatened.

[europas_ice]

Huh, I was thinking having a bunch of schooling fish would be cool. It seems though that even with the right kind of fish they still might not school, so sticking with loner fish might not be such a loss.

[aquanewbie72]

I'll just throw in my 2 cents which pretty much echos others - I have 5 cardinal tetras - they stuck together like glue when I first got them. But now they pretty much go off and do their own thing except when I have my arm in the tank - then they cluster together for a few hours and school. Then they quit when they feel safe again.

[quitters]

Ok thanks guys.

i got them, they dont school but they still look awesome

and there deffinately not dyed, they have a natural parasite in them that makes them gold, thats probably what your thinking of, if there not from the wild they end up being silver.

[jcarlilesiu]

typically fish will school if threatened like everybody else said... however i have noticed that they will stay in visable sight of each other. Its very difficult to get fish to school in a small tank if they arn't threatened, however in a large tank, though they might not school tightly, they will stay where they can see each other i.e. all on one side of the tank