neon schools

[ClamKnuckle]

I am looking for a good schooling fish for a 30 gal. I was looking at neons, but everything I am reading says they wont have schooling behavior unless they have something in the tank to make them feel threatened. All I have in the tank is some cories. So my questions:

Is there something I can put in a 30 that will make the neons school but not be a real threat to them?

Is it really healthy to have them schooling all the time like that? Will it be too much stress?

Thanks

 

[joannde]

Great questions and I can't wait to hear the answers since I want a school of fish in my 30 gallon also !

 

[TomK2]

Well, you could put a whole bunch of neons in that 30 gal tank, and kinda make it a species tank. Then, with 20 or 30 neons in the tank, there would always be a bunch hanging out together. I have 6 neons in a 10 gal, and they are the sole occupants, other than plants. They do tend to hang out together, there is always a group of 3 or 4 of them. If they are the only species in the tank, they hang out in front instead of hiding?

 

[raverain]

You could put in a couple of rainbow fish or gouramis or ram cichlids. Any slightly larger, slightly territorial fish will "scare" your neons into schooling more.

 

[joannde]

Not to steal the thread but this makes me happy! I was planning on rainbows for my own tank. Thanks !

 

[sir_dudeguy]

true, they wont school unless there is something bigger, at least in my experience

 

[jcarlilesiu]

2 things make a fish school... feeling threatened and not being able to see the rest of the school. When i had a 10 gallon with not many ornaments or plants, my white clouds never schooled, when they were put in the 56 gallon which is heavily planted, they at least stayed close enough they could see the rest of the school. beacuse of how much stuff I have in the tank, they had to stay pretty close to always see each other. Hope this helps.

 

[joannde]

ah, good point on the visual barriers ! excellent suggestion and this makes me happy to (there I go stealing the thread again !) since I have lots of visual barriers in my tank. I was originally setting it up for cichlids then decided to go with more peaceful fish.

 

[DeathWarp]

I slapped in 3 moonlight gouramis.. it worked lol

 

[Menagerie]

You could put in a couple of rainbow fish or gouramis or ram cichlids. Any slightly larger, slightly territorial fish will "scare" your neons into schooling more.

That may or may not work. I have never found rainbows or rams to be overly territorial, unless mating. Each fish will have its own personality and you may find that bigger, shyer fish will stay hidden unless they see other fish out in the open. You could end up with a bunch of hiding fish. I keep white cloud minnows in a 50 gallon with kribs. The WCM don’t school simply because there’s a bigger fish in the tank.
IME, the only time you get true schooling behavior is when there is a threat and the fish go into “selfish herd” mode. You see this all over the African plains when big cats are chasing prey. The prey gathers together in the hopes of not being the one on the outside that will get eaten.

Chose a fish that you will be happy with in large numbers, and that if they don’t school, you won’t be disappointed.

 

[iceywater101]

I used angel fish to get my tertas to school. I also really like angels so this worked well.