Recommendation of schooling fishes for a 3 feet tank

[ranmasatome]

i think if your objecting is JUST school and having visible fish..then cna probably go for rummy nose or halequins. If you want something a little rare..go for the red crystals...
Get at least 20-25pcs of whatever species you decide on...as you need to make up for some that will die due to unforseen circumstances.

[dinosaur]

My opinion...

3-line pencils or Boraras brigittae...

Nice and colourful....

[Shadow]

boraras brigittae is too small for 3ft tank. They ae slim with length of about max 2cm and not schooling that well

For iwagumi scapes, best combination is a single species and tight schooling, to give the impressive of vastness. For scapes which are most elaborate, you can have a mixture of fishes which occupies different strata of the tank. But too big a fish will make the tank look small even if you choose the plants size carefully. Too small a fish, you wouldn't be able to see it in the tank. And a very good example is what Ranmasatome pointed out.

Lets use cm instead of saying big or small because it is subjective and hard to imagine.

[torque6]

Boraras brigittae is too small, it will fade into the background if your tank is > 3FT, im only rearing 3 of them in my 1FT cube tank. They dont school that well by the way.

I have however seen Boraras U. at colorful schooling very well in Richard's 4FT tank, he has about 10 of them.

[Jungle-mania]

Dwarf pencilfish, my favourite. They school nicely and don't speed into corners all the time.

[Puffer]

For red crystal tetras, how many would you guys recommend for a planted 3ft tank? I'm just about to rescape my tank and currently house 10 fat cardinals and 10 M erythromicron only. Would like to have another small group of bright-coloured schooling fish.

[ranmasatome]

post 21....

[Shadow]

For red crystal tetras, how many would you guys recommend for a planted 3ft tank? I'm just about to rescape my tank and currently house 10 fat cardinals and 10 M erythromicron only. Would like to have another small group of bright-coloured schooling fish.

Just wondering, with different schooling fish in the same tank, will they school together as one or they will school separetly in their own group/species?

[ranmasatome]

Both are possible... From what i know fishes usually school by sight..meaning they "sort of" recognise their own species...at least i know this is true in pirahnas as i once did an official experiment on pirahna schooling....
That aside...their eyesight isn't excellent..so they may not be able to tell small differences...for example.. corydoras hastatus may school with Odontostilbe kriegi in the wild because of how similar they look..but it isn't credited solely to the reasoning of "looking similar" ...its just what we think as we haven't really experimented much on anything else.
Schooling in one group of fishes may also induce schooling in other groups..

[uklau]

Interesting points. Thanks for sharing, Ranmasatome

[bryan]

Danios and rasboras have less tendency to hide and are mid to upper level fish are actually better 'show' fish.There is currently a wide selection available at Clementi,Wuhu etc. Pity they seem to be overlooked for more 'exotic' tetras from the far reaches of south america.

[nkthen]

X-ray Fish (Pristella maxillaris) looks good also. There are 3 types, the $3 per fish type is the best because they stay together in school and they stay almost motionless in school.