Thoughts on schools at various levels?

[woofwoofgrrl]

When stocking a community tank, is it acceptable to put more than one type of school at the various levels (top, mid, bottom) or should one strive for a single school at each level and then some centerpiece fish?

 

[siva]

What size tank? 29 gals and under I would stick to one schooling group per level. For instance in a 20 gal you could do neon tetras in the bottom half and harlequin rasboras on the top. Or in a 29 gal glowlight tetras on the bottom and glo fish/zebra danios on the top. Then you could also add a shoal of cories to the bottom, a few algea eaters, and one or two centerpeice fish. If you're doing a community in a 10 gal however, of course your options are more limited and you can't have so many groups

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

I have a 30 long, so I was thinking of doing 2 in the middle range, one on the top and one on the bottom and no centerpiece fish....

 

[Rosenweiss]

I'd say you can definitely get away with that. =] It depends a bit on how big your schoolers get though. What species do you want?

 

[siva]

I think it depends on the specific fish. For instance, in my 29 I do not like having the borneo redfin rasbora and the glo fish in there..they kinda throw eachother off so to speak. I'm going to move one of them.

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

Tetras - white/black fin and then another more colorful kind - like a serpae, congo, or bleeding heart. Would that work?

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

Or the VonRio Tetra or Lemon Tetra....they're cool too!

 

[siva]

Yeah my fav tetras are glowlights, cochu's blue, columbian, and diamond. Two tetras should work fine in the bottom half. My black skirts don't really school like I thought they would though.

 

[Rosenweiss]

I'd say don't get black or white skirts. They cause nothing but trouble.

Edit: in my experience that is~!

 

[siva]

Haha..I'm considering taking mine back. They go after eachother for no flippin' reason. I wouldn't do serpaes either, personally.

I think from another thread she already has the white skirts though.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Yeah, serpaes, white/black skirts and bleeding hearts are the most aggressive tetras I know. If she already has white skirts that's fine, but I'd pick more peaceful ones other than those.

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

I already have the white skirts. I was going to add black skirts to round out the school. Mine are really sedate and just hang out all relaxed and groovy. I must have gotten lucky. So what would y'all recommend as more peaceful tetras?

 

[Rosenweiss]

I would say add more white skirts, dont' add black skirts and expect them to school. I tried that EXACT thing and it did NOT work. The white skirts harassed the black skirts and the black skirts harrassed each other. There was 6 total, 2 whites and 4 blacks. I'm just telling you, I think it's a really bad idea.

I would say there are a ton of options. Neons, black neons, bloodfins, ember, penguin, kerri, the list goes on and on.

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

Are the Von Rios and Lemons on the peaceful list or the pain in the tuckus list?

 

[siva]

I think lemons are mare likely to get nippy then von rios, but really with all tetras there are some bad apples in the bunch that get nippy. The bigger they are, the more likely IME.

 

[woofwoofgrrl]

So, giving up the tetra mindset for a moment, what else would be appropriate for a mid-level school to go with my White Skirts?

 

[Rosenweiss]

Maybe a rasbora? harlequin rasboras are pretty nice.

 

[siva]

Rasboras swim more up top half though. They go well with tetras because they don't really interfere with eachother. I've never actually had a "schooler" that used the same region of the tank as tetras.. ?

 

[James_in_MN]

My five banded barbs hang out in the mid to lower regions of my tank.

Perhaps try a barb instead? I'd recommend five banded barbs or cherry barbs as either of those fish are good community fish. Any variant of tiger barbs are fin nippers and not a good idea.

 

[siva]

I don't think mixing barbs and white skirt tetras in a 29 gal is the best idea. Not enough room for 2 schools of fish like those at the same level IMO.