Not enough to school around...

[chooz]

Hi All,

I have a question here that I would like to seek your opinion. I don't have this problem yet but I foresee I may get it one day.

Assuming I have several schooling species of fish in a small tank. So each school is not very big to begin with. Over time, some of these fish died and the amount of surviving fish are not large enough to form a school (ie left 1 or 2 fish of the same species). And assuming I could not find the same species in the local fish shops, what should I do with them? The surviving fish are starting to show behaviors like hiding in a corner or aggressive towards other fish in the tank.

What would you do in this situation?

[Freshman]

I think you should be more concerned about keeping them alive instead.

Several schooling species of fish in a small tank - this doesn't sound good.

Anyway if that situation really arises, you can post in the marketplace section - put the remaining fishes for adoption/sale. Alternatively, you can also start a thread asking for fellow hobbyist members to help you hunt for that particular fish.

Just curious, what fishes are you keeping now?

[benny]

Normally, they will try to form a shoal with other similar fishes. But still, they will be marginalised by the other species. In the long run, they will be stressed.

Cheers,

[chooz]

I have only black tetra and jewel tetra in my 1 foot tank (16 liter), 4 of each species. I have 2 corys too. I used to have 3 corys but one died last weekend. So that prompted me to ask this question before the real situation arises..

[benny]

For corydoras, different species will school together, if they are of the same size and body shape. No worries. For characins and cyprinids, may not always be the case.

Cheers,