Fast schooling community fish

[tim_s]

Hi,

I have a 75 US Gallon tank and I am trying to fill it with various schooling fish.

Right now I have 10 rummy nose tetra's and 10 neon tetra's and I have been happy with both these fish.

So I think I will grab 10 more of each.

Anyone else recommend any other fast schooling fish for this planted tank?

[TLe041]

I just picked up a large school of Boraras merah (phoenix rasbora) from Big Al's last weekend. They are about 1.5 cm in size and form very tight schools.

More info on them here: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Boraras&species=merah&id=948

[Dorrie]

If what you want is fast schooling fish, then I can't recommend Danios enough.

Their water requirements are for the most part (with some exceptions, like the Celestial Pearl Danios) the same as tetras, and they are fast top swimmers that almost constantly interact with each other.

Rasboras are also great fish, though not as speedy.

Good luck choosing your fish, and do keep us posted.

[pixie1963]

I still fairly new to this hobby, but I have 6 golden danios and I can sit there for hours and watch them, chasing each other and darting in and out of the plants. It's almost like watching a really fast game of tag your it...lol

[tim_s]

I just picked up a large school of Boraras merah (phoenix rasbora) from Big Al's last weekend. They are about 1.5 cm in size and form very tight schools.

More info on them here: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Boraras&species=merah&id=948

Question 1:
These are nice looking fish ... Are they fast? (because they are small and rummy nose might chase) I do have a heavily planted tank and I would be excited to see a fish that will like to make use of this without disturbing the peace within the tank right now.

Question 2:
My goal is fill the tank pretty densely over a good and healthy period of time.  Would this high activity and dense population stress the rasbora?  They are skittish fish correct?

[tim_s]

If what you want is fast schooling fish, then I can't recommend Danios enough.

Their water requirements are for the most part (with some exceptions, like the Celestial Pearl Danios) the same as tetras, and they are fast top swimmers that almost constantly interact with each other.

Rasboras are also great fish, though not as speedy.

Good luck choosing your fish, and do keep us posted.

Yes I have thought about Danios ... I am worried because in the top layer of the tank and speed being so much greater then even the rummy nose tetra's ... this will make feeding hard for the rummy nose and even greater for the neon's being the slowest.

[mseguin]

Dwarf Neon rainbows tend to swim a lot and are very colorful
Some reasboras tend to hover, some swim around, it also depends on water flow.
They're hard to find lately, but lampeyes are another schooling fish that tends to move alot, and they look good in a planted or slighlty darkened tank

[tim_s]

Hi Everyone,

So I took my girlfriend to Big Al's as this tank is in our living room.

As suggested (Sorry mseguin your suggestions where viewed after) Danios and Rasbora where the main choices.

The employee at Big Al's pleeded a stay away from the Danios and my girlfriend wasn't excited about the Rasbora and they might be a little too small.

So we bought ...

5 more rummy nose tetras (As these my favorite so far)
15 Penguin tetras

I am not sure if this is typical of the species but on day one the school sits tightly and at the top of the tank.

So in my 75 I now have:

1 bushy pleco
15 rummy nose
15 penguin
10 neon

Next we are looking to find a tetra species that differs a little more in colour and appearance.

I just love that the tank is filling up and the tank is extremely peaceful.

[tim_s]

So neons are disappearing and from an educated guess I imagine the issue to be my filters are too powerful.

Am I right in thinking a sponge with a slice cut out of it and placed over the inlet would do the trick or am I just damaging the filters ability to clean the tank.

I suppose I am just preventing large matter from going into the tank.

I notice I have only found neon bodies (this is my educated guess by the way) in the far filter which is the problem as I have stuck a plant (yes a plant ... its my little trick) into the output the filter to disperse the flow. That this is possibly reducing the intake.

Will have to investigate more but the tank is beautiful.

I have an established tank with (no signs of algae right now) with only a Pleco ... should I invest in some sort of other bottom feeder?

[dan2x38]

Maybe I missed it but how old is this setup? Rummynose can be sensitive to accalimate but OK once settled in. Lossing fish might be some other issue besides a filter input.

I've used sponges over filters before no problem. The large matter collects in the sponge. You will have to rinse teh sponges from time to time.

Ever see the blood fin tetras or ember tetras? Of course a fav. are teh cardinals.

[Laura]

Can you give us some information as to how old the tank is and wether it was cycled? Your neon loss may be a water quality issue rather than flow.

I use sponges over my intakes in all my tanks - just rinse them in tank water when you do a water change.

Danios would have been great fast schoolers, but for a calm planted tank it sounds like you have some great choices. I can see that Giant danios would have been a bad addition, but there are many other sizes and species that would have been nice.

Make sure you feed your pleco - they love zucchini.

[Fishnut]

I have no idea why the LFS employee didn't encourage danios.  They would be great in that set-up.  Like Laura said...not the giant danios but there are so many other types of small danios out there that would be perfect.

I have 6 Glowlite danios in my tank.  No, they're not the pink and blue coloured zebra danios, they're a naturally coloured fish with bright orange.  If your GF likes colourful fast moving fish, get about 20 of these guys.  If you're googleing them, most of the pics on the internet don't to them justice.  Mine are very bright orange.

On the note of cycling though...yes, lease give us more info.

[tim_s]

Maybe I missed it but how old is this setup?

and

Can you give us some information as to how old the tank is and wether it was cycled?

Hi this is the process I used to cycle the water.

3 years ago - I setup a red belly piranha tank. (75 Gallon)
2 months ago - I doubled the sponges in my piranha tank.
1 month 2 weeks ago - I purchased second 75 gallon tetra tank.
1 month 1 week ago - I took 50% of the Piranha tank water and pumped it into new tank.
1 month 1 week ago - I re-filled the missing 50% in both tanks with pre-conditioned water.
1 month 1 week ago - I migrated the older sponges from the Piranha tank into the tetra tank.
1 month 1 week ago - I migrated rocks and plants from the Piranha tank to the tetra tank.
1 month 1 week ago - I placed new rocks and planets to fill up the piranha tank
1 month 1 week ago - I bought 10 neons.
1 month ago - I bought 10 rummy nose and 1 pleco. (supplementing the diet with the pleco with algae tablets)
1 month ago - I bought more plants and put them in the tetra tank.
3 weeks ago - I bought 10 rummy nose.
1 week ago - I bought 5 rummy and 15 penguin.

Does this schedule help?

[Fishnut]

That's great!   

OK, so it's not a "fresh cycling" issue but I would check the water parameters just in case something is out of whack. 

Sometimes if bacteria levels are large enough to handle the waste of piranha, then suddenly it only has to handle the waste of 10 tiny neons, some of the bacteria dies off, causing the tank to go through a mini cycle when you add more fish later.  Also, adding excess food contributes to parameters being out of whack when the bio load changes drastically. 

I always suggest that when fish start to die, check the water first.  From my experience, 90% of the time, that's where people find the problem.  10% of the time it's the health of the fish.

[tim_s]

I have no idea why the LFS employee didn't encourage danios.

The LFS employee felt the Danios would be faster then the tetras and nip fins.

[tim_s]

That's great!   

OK, so it's not a "fresh cycling" issue but I would check the water parameters just in case something is out of whack. 

Sometimes if bacteria levels are large enough to handle the waste of piranha, then suddenly it only has to handle the waste of 10 tiny neons, some of the bacteria dies off, causing the tank to go through a mini cycle when you add more fish later.  Also, adding excess food contributes to parameters being out of whack when the bio load changes drastically. 

I always suggest that when fish start to die, check the water first.  From my experience, 90% of the time, that's where people find the problem.  10% of the time it's the health of the fish.

true but ... I am pulling neons out of the filter input

[Dorrie]

The LFS employee felt the Danios would be faster then the tetras and nip fins.

Well, I've always kept different species of Danios and Tetras together, including in my current set-up, and have yet to experience anything negative, but everyone's fauna behaves in their own way

[tim_s]

A friend offered me a male convict which with the female also in his tank has caused problems.

What kind of issues am I looking at keeping the male on his own? (based off the tetra occupants)

[robt18]

I'd kept danios and tetras together for a looong time with no issues, then I moved and tried it again and had nothing but problems! I guess it really depends on the temperment of the batch you get...

If you're looking for something peaceful and a little faster moving and something that'll also get a little more size to it, I second matt's suggestion of Dwarf Neon Rainbows. I picked up 8 myself last night... looking good!

Most likely your neons are dying and then ending up on the filter intake after they float around dead for a while. I've never seen a fish die because of a filter having too muh water flow (within reason).

Putting a convict in your tank would destroy everything. They're waaaay more aggressive than anything else in there, and will probably kill everything other than the pleco.

[tim_s]

Even though the male would be by himself?