Schooling Fish

[Bill M.]

So I plan to add 4 black skirts, serpae and danios to my 29g to make a total of 6 species each. I also want to add 4 clown loaches. Can I add a few of each species each month untill I get my desired numbers and they will still school together??? Or must they be added together at the same time to school together??

[cocoa_pleco]

they will school later. i add new tetras to my tank all the time and they all school

[Rue]

...in my experience it's never mattered...

...but in such a small amount of water, they don't seem to really school either...or not very often...so don't be disappointed if they don't...

[cocoa_pleco]

rue has an excellent point. in small tanks, schooling fish feel secure and do not rely on eachother as much. the only fish i know that will school no matter what even in small tanks is bloodfin tetras

[Bill M.]

So even a 29 isnt big enough to have em school??? Eh.. what a shame..... but I think it would look lovely with 6 of those guys in there... I have to say black skirts are my favorite fish....

[Rue]

...they still look awesome! But you just don't get the tight little flowing groups that you would if you had a 55g or bigger...

But that's why we have MTS...

[zackish]

That's a lot of fish and clown loaches get BIG.....I saw some big ones at the store the other day and they looked fake they were so big.
Also, harlequin rasboras are extremely good schoolers I think. I was looking at them at a few petstores and they stay tight even ina smaller tank. They had about 30 of them in a 40+ gal tank and they were all really close.

[A340]

I bought 10 Neons (my very first ones ever) for my 29g on the weekend, and they seem to stick togeter, looks kinda neat.

[kimmers318]

Be very cautious about adding those clown loaches unless you plan on having a much larger tank in the future. They can grow quite large and will need the space. They are slow growers, but as active fish that grow quite big, they prefer the larger space even at the smaller size.

[Lady Hobbs]

I think instead of several species of fish, you would have a nicer tank and more schooling with just one type. Like some corys at the bottom, your black skirts in the middle and danios at the top. You could have some rasbora's instead of the danio's even. They are cool and very active schoolers.

[zackish]

Lady is completely right and I decided to take her and many others advice. That is why I am getting just one school of 12 or so cardinal tetras.

[1MileCrash]

this is just me but when i get more fish i'm going to get 5 or 6 tiger barbs. i haven't had luck keeping them before but that's because the tank wasn't fully cycled and they were severely stressed at that point and they all died. but for the few days that they were in the tank they schooled and swam together and man was it kool. plus...and you may like this part of it...tiger barbs are orange with black stripes and they shouldn't get over 3inches in length compared to the same color clown loaches that get upwards of what...10inches give or take.

on clown loaches...i never had luck with them. the two that i did get both got ick quickly and died while their tankmates had no problems. i read up on them and they said that since they are a soft scaled fish that they are more susceptible to disease than hard scaled fish. that's really why i've stayed away from them since then.

but good luck to ya no matter what you go with.