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Looking for schooling fishes. . .

J

JoãoLopes

Seedling
Joined
28 Apr 2012
Messages
21
Hello,

Recently, sold my crystal red shrimps and replaces them by a couple of apistogrammas macmasteri. The aquarium has 60 liters and is heavily planted with anubias, lotus, cryptos. But with only the couple, the aquarium is unattractive, without movement. I'm looking for a schooling fish with strong colors, my preference is south american small fish, but isn't de most importante. the most importante is that they feel ok with each other.

I like rasboras harlequins, Cardinals and neons (i think is too usual), tetras (too big?)..

What more i can looking for?

Sorry for my english and thank you for your time.

;)
 
Hi all,
You can use Cardinal or Neon tetras as dithers, they both like soft, warm water.

However they are great fry hunters, so if you want to breed your Apistogramma pair, you need to use any of Pencil Fish (but not Beckford's Pencil (Nannostomus beckfordi )), Hatchet fish (Carniegella strigata), a small tetra like Ember Tetra (Hyphessobrycon amandae) or Ruby Tetra (Axelrodia riesei) or a surface orientated tetra like Black-Neon Tetra (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi) or Splash "Tetra" (Copella arnoldi).

Out of these Black-Neon Tetra are the easiest to keep and obtain and are big enough to act as a target fish as well.

If you don't mind them not being S. American, I've used Threadfin Rainbows (Iriatherina werneri), Norman's Lamp-eye (Poropanchax normani) and Rocket Killis (Pseudepiplatys annulatus) successfully in the past.

I've never tried Harlequin Raspbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha), but most black water fish eat what-ever comes their way, so my suspicion would be that they are pretty efficient fry hunters.

cheers Darrel
 
I recently bought just 5 Rummy Nose Tetra's and was amazed that they are always together. Quite colourful too with their red noses and black and white patterned tail fins.
My Red Phantom Tetra's tend to stick to a shoal, but are not as active as the Rummy nose ones.
Cardinal tetras also as you know shoal.
R
 
Thanks for the sugestions.
i didn't know that cardinals or Neons are fry hunters. o_O Tomorrow i go to my lfs and see what are available.
Why not pencil fish?
i thought the Rummy Nose need more space than i have.

How many should i buy?

Rummy nose , 6? 7?
Cardinals , 8? 10?
Rasboras Harlequin 10? 12?
 
Hi,

Darell's advice is excellent - no surprise there... :)

I would stock something relatively small in a 60 litre, especially if you want a decent shoal.

Rolymo's idea of Rummynose is good - they are one the best (tight) shoalers, but are a bit big for 60 litres and look best in groups of at least 10.

The vast majority of so-called shoaling fish soon settle into their new home, and consequently stop shoaling. The shoaling is a defence mechanism from predators. Once the fish learn that there is no predators, then they usually swim about 'randomly'. Rummynose are often the exception here and seem to shoal tightly almost all of the time - especiallly in larger aquariums.

I really like Ember tetras (Hyphessobrycon amandae). They stay small and in appropriate water colour up beautifully.
 
They are often very pale in sales tanks. I just saw some settled in a tank like mine and they are absolutely gorgeous little fish! Made the tank look big in relation and the colours just popped! I'll be getting some when they order some next since the seeding and plants should be well in progress.
 
What about Rasborra Brigittae? Beautiful, small (max. 2cm) fish that is a true schooling fish when putting them together with a minimum of 10-15.... Having them in my own tank, really amazing fish.

Rasbora-Brigittae-1.jpg
 
mede said:
What about Rasborra Brigittae? Beautiful, small (max. 2cm) fish that is a true schooling fish when putting them together with a minimum of 10-15.... Having them in my own tank, really amazing fish.

Rasbora-Brigittae-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Those are beautiful.


Posted from the comfort of my iPhone...
 
They are so colored like this photo? In lfs the rasboras are so pale.
 
The one in the picture is the boraras brigittae, the most colourful of the dwarf rasboras. There are some others like maculatus and merah that are still beautiful but not as bright. The ones I spotted at LFS are exactly this colour and just stunning. They do like plants and the option to hide so that's why they can be pale and skittish in the bare sales tank.
 
In my LSF they also look very pale.... providing the right conditions (plants, good food) they really turn this red (watching them in my tank daily). If they don't feel happy, you immediately notice this in their color change.

Beautiful in contrast with green plants...
 
My 12 boraras brigittae have coloured up beautifully but they are a bit shy. I wish they would come out into the open more. They tend to blend in with 150+ cherry shrimps in the undergrowth!
 
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