# Best schooling fish



## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

Want to know everyones opinions on the best Schooling fish, I know that Rummy's are a great choice. But I want to know what everyone else thinks. also What are some good bottom dwelling schooling fish, I want to fill an 8 foot tank and want something that is going to really make a nice school.


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## vinizuh (Sep 17, 2014)

FuelingFire said:


> Want to know everyones opinions on the best Schooling fish, I know that Rummy's are a great choice. But I want to know what everyone else thinks. also What are some good bottom dwelling schooling fish, I want to fill an 8 foot tank and want something that is going to really make a nice school.



True SAE's will school nicely in groups of 8 and up. I have 10 in my 90g


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

CORY CATS!!! Albino and Sterbai are two that school nicely. And with 8 ft, it would be pretty impressive to watch. 

Emerald eye rasboras keep a tight school, but stay mostly at the top


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## IntotheWRX (May 13, 2016)

FuelingFire said:


> Want to know everyones opinions on the best Schooling fish, I know that Rummy's are a great choice. But I want to know what everyone else thinks. also What are some good bottom dwelling schooling fish, I want to fill an 8 foot tank and want something that is going to really make a nice school.


neon tetras are great for the metallic blue glow. ember tetras are good for the orange glow. up to you to choose your colors. they are pretty hardy. wasnt until some bleach killed the neon tetra.


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

I gave my Neons and black skirts away to my friend as he wanted to add to his collection, and I wanted a change. Although I loved the neons colors. I Plan on getting more Cory's but Haven't decided on What kind. i have only had peppered and emeralds. But I love everyones suggestions, keep them comming.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Yeah Rummies are great schoolers and they occupy the lower half of the tank. Though they kind of blend in with plants.

Rasboras (Trigonostigma) are just as active and school just as tightly as Rummies and they occupy the upper half of the tank so the two as a combo fill in a tank nicely.
Espei raboras are my favorite among the Trigonostigma genus. They are slimmer bodied, but their orange shine is nice.

For the Corydoras, larger shoals of the same species is a lot better than mixing a bunch of different Cory species. I speak from quite a bit of experience (big fan, bred and kept 30 or so different Corydoras species). Plus with less species, the less chance of creating hybrids which are highly frowned upon. I personally would just get more peppered and/or emeralds. Larger groups of the same species are much cooler. The fish become a lot more active and it's pretty cool seeing such a large family of them. The more of them, the happier and healthier they will be, and they will more likely breed! (especially those species). While different Corydoras species will hang out together, they do know they are different and activity/interaction between them is bland compared to how social large groups of the same species are.

If I were to suggest another Corydoras species, I am a big fan of the even more active Corydoras pygmaeus or Corydoras hastatus (not C. habrosus). These are the dwarf Corys, but they are a lot more active schooling and swim in the middle water column frequently. It's also fun seeing the little guys perch on plant leaves  Though depending if you have large fish that may eat them, they wouldn't be a good choice.


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## sfshrimp (May 24, 2016)

How many fish are you planning on keeping? 8 feet seems like you could keep a shoal upward of 200+ fish.


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

WaterLife: I Love the dwarf cory species. Never owned them but have seen them and really would like to get some but I don't know as of yet what i want for a center piece fish.

I was thinking of doing some Oto's I have ammano shrimp in the tank at moment. although they like to go down my over flow even with a screen on it they still manage to squeeze in the small holes and ride the flow to the sump. I also have a twig catfish. 

I really thought about doing a lot of dwarf species in the tank or smaller fish but I don't know how lost the would look unless I really had alot of one species to make it pop. I mean 50 or 75 CPD's i think would still look lost in this size tank although they are a beautiful fish.

sfshrimp: I'm not sure what my stocking numbers will be yet. My system is 300 gallon total, with a constant drip system. I can stock a good bit. I just am going to take it slow and do one species at a time (maybe) and when it looks not over crowded but not under stocked Then I'll be at my number. haha


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Wish I could find you the video of this guys huge aquarium (600 gallon+) that had like 500-1000 oto cats (if I remember right) Was amazing to see how they schooled in his tank - kinda like a giant wave of fish moving end to end.


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

600 gallons of Otto's that would be sic.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

This was an amazon themed setup as the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Not sure how many gallons or how many cards where in there


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## waterbearr (Sep 26, 2016)

I vote for cory's as well. Great lower tank schooler and they sure are cute!

I read a really old thread about this last night. Bloodfin tetra was mentioned several times and I even seen a really cool video of them tightly schooling. I'd check them out.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I've always found that Neons and Cardinals were more shoalers than schoolers. 

I've had upwards of 40 Diamond tetras in a 120g tank and they schooled as tightly as my Rummynose. I've also had 100 Espei rasboras that also were very tight schoolers.

What I like about the Espeis is that they're relaxed schoolers, meaning that they flow together across the tank calmly. Whereas Rummynoses tend to always be in a hurry to get to the other end of the tank. A large school of Habrosus corys behaved the same way except they would zig-zag up and down while racing across the tank. They were kind of annoying to watch after a while.

With your large tank a big school of Roseline Sharks (Puntius denisonii) would be beautiful. They are active, bottom third schoolers, but their large size makes their activity less manic looking. I have 9 in a 6', 125g tank. If I had an 8' tank as you do I'd double that amount.


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## K1963158 (Aug 15, 2016)

Are you particular about your biotope? I mean does it have to be S.A?

8 foot tank would be great to have a very large school of Bosemani Rainbow and for bottom dweller you could go with botia stiata loaches.


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

rK1963158: This time I am not doing a biotope but more of a mix community, as far as loaches go, I have Nerite snails and trumpet snails I don't want to get eatin. But I do have bladder snails I wouldn't mind if they were eradicated. also Bosemani are Nice and I have thought about them But I do like the Praecox rainbow (Melanotaenia praecox) But unsure how it would do with a Redtail black shark or rainbow shark, If i decided to get one, (mind isn't made up on that owned a rainbow shark before.)

bharada: I had to look up Espei Rasbora and their isnt much of a difference in them and HR but they seem to have more color. Still nice fish and I like the relaxed schooling better than the always in a hurry rummy's. as far as the Roselines. I have never really givin them much thought I had them mentioned to me before and I still hadn't had time to really study them. I guess I'll make it a priority to investigate them. My buddy who I gave my neons to has some glow light tetra's that are beautiful and I plan on getting some of them But I don't know if I will get many of them or use them as an accent to the main school of fish. (how well do they school or are they a shoaling type like neons.)

Waterbearr: I use to have bloodfins in a 55 when i first got in the hobby, It been years ago and I know they didn't school very much until after the rainbow shark i had decided to chanse them. ( he did not stay long in my tank, my rookie mistake) of course It's been so long I really can't remember to much about the bloodfins, I did like them though. As far as cory's I love Cory's and Will be getting more. haven't decided on what species, yet I do like the dwarf species. 

Houseofcards: I wish I had a 2500 gallon tank or better to do a south american Biotope. I love that tank it is nice.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

bharada said:


> I've always found that Neons and Cardinals were more shoalers than schoolers.
> .


That is very true, If you look at the image above from the Shed Aquarium with the cardinals they look to be moving together fairly well, but if you look closely at the bottom right center of the image there are turtles, possibly snakes in that setup which is probably helping.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

FuelingFire said:


> bharada: I had to look up Espei Rasbora and their isnt much of a difference in them and HR but they seem to have more color. Still nice fish and I like the relaxed schooling better than the always in a hurry rummy's. as far as the Roselines. I have never really givin them much thought I had them mentioned to me before and I still hadn't had time to really study them. I guess I'll make it a priority to investigate them. My buddy who I gave my neons to has some glow light tetra's that are beautiful and I plan on getting some of them But I don't know if I will get many of them or use them as an accent to the main school of fish. (how well do they school or are they a shoaling type like neons.)


Here's a video of the Roselines in my 125g tank.

To get the full effect of small schooling fish in a large tank you really need to get a lot. I'd say 50 minimum. But as I mentioned earlier, some (if not most) tetras just shoal, so they hang around in the same general area, but don't move together.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

BTW, the regular Harlequin rasboras are excellent schoolers as well. The espeis have a torpedo body shape and are copper colored as opposed to the pinkish hue of the Harlequin. 

50-100 Harlequins would make an impressive display.


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

bharada said:


> BTW, the regular Harlequin rasboras are excellent schoolers as well. The espeis have a torpedo body shape and are copper colored as opposed to the pinkish hue of the Harlequin.
> 
> 50-100 Harlequins would make an impressive display.


Here's some purple harlequins along with cardinal tetras and rummy nose tetras

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5IpWPvrBMo


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

OK So I Just got home from a Aquarium shop about 1 1/2 hours from my house, I bought 25 Bloodfin tetra's and the only 5 Harlequin rasbora's and 1 horned Nerite snail. They did have a whole school of roseline sharks that looked fantastic, However I plan on maybe getting them at a later time. I will not be upping my bloodfins they will be more of an accent fish. the HR I will be upping thier numbers so they don't seem so small of a school. But I am going to really start thinking of a large school of 1 fish.

Bump: Bharada: Nice tank and those roselines look good, thanks for sharing the vid.


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## Bananableps (Nov 6, 2013)

Tuna.


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## HSakhi (Oct 1, 2016)

I would do a large school of cardinals, bleeding heart tetras, or panda cories.

Sent from my SM-J320P using Tapatalk


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## FishyIdea (Dec 11, 2014)

People do love to post vids of their schooling fish on YouTube.

So I am using that as my research vehicle to answer the same question. Based on what I saw there, this is my short list:

Lemon Tetra
Gold Tetra
Cardinal Tetra
Silvertip Tetra
Glowlight Danio (Danio choprai)

I have limited myself to fish between 1.5 and 2 inches max size. I want to have a school of 24 in a 90g. Also, I tend not to like "red fish," which is probably a character flaw, but I live with it 

There is one fantastic video of Glowlights schooling tightly with nice color and changing direction together. So they are my current #1. Of course one video does not indicate they are that awesome in the majority of tanks.


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## FuelingFire (Nov 8, 2012)

I find that the bloodfins are schooling together, but they make small schools and because there is no predator or bigger fish they don't do it but morning and night.


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## Platy Lover (Jul 6, 2016)

I personally love cherry barbs, sweet little things and colourful.


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## kinzo (Apr 18, 2013)

Platy Lover said:


> I personally love cherry barbs, sweet little things and colourful.


Second this, especially the longfin RCBs!


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## waterbearr (Sep 26, 2016)

Platy Lover said:


> I personally love cherry barbs, sweet little things and colourful.


Same but they don't really school. At least mine don't.


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