# Rasbora Schooling Behavior: Hengeli vs. Harlequin



## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

I am on a serious mission here for a mini schooling tank and I have been for quite some time now. The tank I have been working with is 16 gallons and I think that may be the issue here. 16 gallons is not large enough to house even a small school of Harlequins, so I have been seriously considering Hengelis since Harlequins seems to me to be the best "schoolers" under a Rummynose (also too large). 

Other than that I have looked into other Rasbora species such as Chillis and Firework/Galaxy which I have had and they eh, shy and not very active. This leaves people who are going to suggest all sorts of Tetra to me and currently I have 20 Embers in this 16 gallon tank, which is fully stocked. That is the absolute smallest Tetra I can come across and they do school but they will not school the way I want them to. I started with 6, then went to 12, and I recently finished off at 20. I monitored their behavior over the weeks in the varying amounts and it made no difference. So then I added a Dwarf Gourami which did not help, because I noticed they school tightly when they are scared or if I am near the tank. I was hoping the Dwarf Gourami would act as a centerpiece fish to trick the Embers into a false fear. I recently started removing stem plants and am trying the Iwagumi style to see if that helps me achieve my goal. So I am completely done @ 20 Embers and a Dwarf Gourami (plus my snails and shrimps). Ultimately I think the same 20 Embers in a 40 or 55 gallon would probably act the way I want, I may be learning the hard way there is a minimum to tank size for a "schooling" effect regardless of nano species. 

I am really stuck on this 16 gallon tank though, and I wanted to keep experimenting. I was thinking about switching 10 of the Embers out for Neons and watching their behavior, then removing all the Tetra and trying some Hengeli Rasboras. 

Has anyone had both Hengeli and Harlequin in the same tank?!

Thanks

EDIT: I couldn't help but buy the one single Hengeli at the store today, they are expensive @ $3.99 each but so isint every nano fish right now they are hot and in demand. I added him in with my Embers and I already love him, total surface dweller! It stays within the top 1/3 of the tank so I asked them to order me half a dozen more...I will bring back some of my Embers and get to a 50/50 to judge behavior differences.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

UPDATE: I can not seem to keep this fish in my tank  he keeps jumping out and ended up dying on the floor, never had a single one of my twenty Embers do this. Very disappointing. Maybe its because he was a single, and he needed same species mates.


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## Tessa (Dec 8, 2015)

I have all three of the orange rasboras - harlequin, hengel and espei. All are about the same size, though the harlequins are a bit more round. All of them school only when spooked/scared, otherwise they just swim around randomly and do their own thing. Definitely not tight schoolers in my tank. The mixed group has about 20 fish.


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## JJBTEXAS (Jul 8, 2013)

I don't have too much experience with rasbora but I never had any that really schooled like many tetra's do. CPDs will shoal in a larger tank but you won't get that in a 16. I had some CPDs in a 16 bowfront and they would just swim through the stem plants.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

I finally found Espi. Rasbora (I moved to FL, found them right in a store did not even have to order them). I LOVE them! After keeping a school of 20 Ember Tetra for over 6 months I can actually compare them. 

Regarding Espi. vs. Harlequin I can finally weigh in on this topic. For one the price is cheaper down here in FL than in MA, they are $2.49 when in MA they were $3.99 also they are not jumping out of my tank, I suppose that may have been an isolated case. They seem to be right on with the behavior of Harlequins, I bought 6 of them and they are the only fish in the 16 gallon. They are staying in the top half to 1/3 of the tank unlike the Ember Tetra, and they are also much more active than the Ember Tetra were. They never stop moving, left, right, left, right, however my Embers tended to hover in place sometimes usually closer to the bottom of the tank. They also display another trait common to the Harlequins...they swim on an angle. My Embers always stayed completely level when swimming, but the Espi. swim side to side with their head higher than their tails playing in the current which is amusing to watch. 

From MY experience, Rasbora school or shoal much more consistently than Tetra. My espi. do not always stay together sometimes I catch them dispersed among the tank like the Embers would do but far less, they tend to stay together more frequently than the Embers (so far).

In conclusion they are smaller, but they truly do carry behavioral genetic traits close to the Harlequins. The black triangle was not a coincidence, they really are a Harlequin in a slimmer body.


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## Triport (Sep 3, 2017)

With maybe a few exceptions many of these small tetras and cyprinids are shoaling fish so they form a loose group that stays near each other for beneficial needs but will only tend to tightly school for specific reasons. In a larger tank with a few larger tank mates that they perceive as a threat you are more likely to see schooling more often but generally they are just going to hang out near each other in loose groups. Rummy nose are definitely the best schooling tetras I have ever owned. My reed tetras (Hyphessobrycon elachys) are pretty good schoolers. I have had lambchop and harlequin rasboras together with rainbowfish and they did school but not all the time.


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## beckyhiker (Mar 30, 2017)

My T. espei behave the same as yours, staying near the top, constantly moving, mostly staying together. Unfortunately, they do all of this at the back of the tank behind the tall plants and floating plant roots. Occasionally, when I first enter the room, I can see that they are at the front of the tank, but when they spot me they head to the back. Are yours up front at all or shy like mine?


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

They stay together about 50% of the time and 25% they split into two groups but they do spend some time scattered among the tank. Mine are fearless, although they have nowhere to hide since its an Iwagumi style layout which I find makes a huge difference in a schooling or shoaling goal. I was planting some hair grass today and for a good hour they just stayed around my arm and such, did not seem bothered in the least bit on the other hand the Embers would have been together in a tight group hovering in the back bottom corner...these guys never stopped moving but stayed close to my arm it was interesting.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

After extended observation they have become too relaxed and rarely shoal together anymore. They are however fearless little fish. So I added a Dwarf Gourami as a centerpiece/false fear to see what kind of behavior I would get. They got back in a group a bit more but not like they were at first. However it did cause one of my 6 to jump out and land on the floor so now I am down to 5. Putting a lid on my tank is not an option I am rimless with suspended lights. So as a last ditch effort I located 5 more Espi. so I now have 10 of them, plus the Dwarf Gourami. As before they are all together now in a tight group with the new mates so I will see if a larger group does the trick in the long term.


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## mnafisrusly (Jan 4, 2018)

Before rummynose i kept the purple harlequin and i think they do quite well and idk i like their colors more , had both the original.

Sent from my SM-J730G using Tapatalk


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## Triport (Sep 3, 2017)

I really think the size of the tank has a lot to do with it. In my 29 g my 10 lambchop rasboras school quite a bit. Obviously not all the time but I often see them swimming back and forth together in a group. Even more so my 20 reed tetras (Hyphessobrycon elachys) in my larger 40 breeder often school together and that is without anything larger than black phantom tetras and Corydoras as tank mates. I would imagine in a 4' long or larger tank it would be even more pronounced.


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## Teebo (Jul 15, 2015)

Triport said:


> I really think the size of the tank has a lot to do with it. In my 29 g my 10 lambchop rasboras school quite a bit. Obviously not all the time but I often see them swimming back and forth together in a group. Even more so my 20 reed tetras (Hyphessobrycon elachys) in my larger 40 breeder often school together and that is without anything larger than black phantom tetras and Corydoras as tank mates. I would imagine in a 4' long or larger tank it would be even more pronounced.


I think your right, I even tried switching out the Dwarf Gourami for a Blue Ram which was too aggressive and I had to bring it back....now I am back to just Espi. The Dwarf Gourami caused a Rasbora to jump out of the tank, and the Blue Ram caused another to jump. Then I put the Blue Ram in a breeder net until I could get back to the store, and even in a net it caused a 3rd Espi to jump to its death. SO here we are the following day the Blue Ram has been gone for 24 hours now, no Dwarf Gourami, I woke up to find another Espi dead on the floor so now they are jumping with no other tank mates where the first batch of 6 went weeks without a single one jumping until I introduced the Dwarf Gourami. I guess they are all a little jumpy now, maybe a shadow at night reminds them of the mates that chased them or something?


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## Triport (Sep 3, 2017)

It is possible rasboras in general are just jumpy. Though I did have mine in an open top aquarium for a while and don't believe I lost any. But I know when I was reading up on what to put in my rimless 60P all the micro rasboras were said to be jumpers.


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