Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on getting Neons to school, right now I have a 55gal tank with an assortment of fish but the 10 neons, 4 blood fins, and 6 glowlights wont school. When i added the blood fins a bunch of the tetras schooled for a min, then they went back to just floating around near each other. Can anyone help me?

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Jared

I copied this from another forum:

A shoaling fish is a fish that stays close to its group but it does not align its body with the bodies of other fish in the group as they all swim. A schooling fish is the one that will align its body position to that of the entire group. I have 12 neon tetras and I don't see them schooling, so I suppose they're shoaling fish. A large group of schooling fish will look spectacular given lots of space and as they all swim in exactly the same direction and with the same speed, etc

Edit: I forgot to mention that Neons shoal naturally in the wild.

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75 Gallon Planted

Neons are a popular fish that are mistakenly commonly referred to as a schooling fish. They act more like a shoaling fish imo and I would put them under that category. That is my opinion however and you may find some people who would say neons school.

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Dang alright, do you know what a good community schooling fish would be?

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Jared

Some good community schooling fish are danios such as zebra danios and glofish. Also please don't listen to either articles advice on the minimum tank size. The minimum tank size imo should be 10 gallons for these fish (they are both the same fish). Glofish as far as I know are genetically modified before birth (they aren't tattooed like some fish, and please never buy a tattooed fish)

Zebra Danio (Danio rerio) - A Profile of the Zebra Danio (Danio rerio)

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: GloFish(R), Danio rerio

Another good selection would be white cloud mountain minnows (I own and am a fan of these fish, alothough they are currently in a tank that is too small due to the pet store telling me it was okay before I knew anything. I have a tank to be able to rehome them as quickly as possible).

White Cloud Mountain Minnow - Tanichthys alboneubes

there are other varieties of this fish such as the golden white cloud and the long fin white cloud. Liveaquaria is correct with the information they have given on this specific type of fish.

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Golden White Cloud Mountain Minnow

Long Fin White Cloud

There are of course many others. The ones that I listed are a hardier fish so they will withstand bad water conditions for a period of time, but always try and keep water as clean for the fish as possible .

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Wow those white clouds are really cool, but I dont think they would like my tank because it is warmer for my rams, do you have any other suggestions for warmer schooling fish?

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Jared

White clouds would more than likely be fine, they can survive in as cold as 41 degree temperature water and as high as 90 degrees for short periods of time. I have mine with a mystery snail and the temperature was around 75 degrees for awhile and they were happy and healthy. As long as you don't get too rediculous with the temperature (like 80+ I would say) they would more than likely be just fine.

A lot of people like Harlequin Rasbora as well which would prefer the warmer temperatures.

Harlequin rasbora - Trigonostigma heteromorpha

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A bigger fish might encourage them to stick together more.

Here are a couple of recent topics you might find interesting:

Video of neon tetras in the wild
Neon Tetras not schooling

I had the same problem. I finally decided that the neons would only school if they felt threatened. Once they got comfortable in the tank, then they each went their own way. I had three clown loaches with the neons in the 75 g and the zooming of the loaches kept everyone schooling for quite a while. Clowns take a lot of care though (and big tanks).

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10g lightly planted with vals, crypts, anubias and one female betta.

75g lightly planted with 8 neon tetras, 7 black-skirt tetras, 7 Swartz' cories, 1 Bolivian ram, dozens of rcs, hundreds of mts, and four assassin snails.

Bloodfin Tetra, best aquarium schooler I've seen. Rummy-nose are pretty close. They don't always school, but most of the time they do.

So got 4 bloodfin tetras but they also got comfortable and began doing the same thing as the neons, so i just added 5 zebra danios and 5 blue danios and they have defiantly brought a ton of life to the tank, all the fish began schooling.

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Jared

Black skirt tetra would probably school nicely, mine do and only with 6. Note they don't school all the time, but frequently.

Tiger barbs won't school very often, but are interesting with their antics of chasing each other. Lot's of action. They don't chase other fish, just each other. And I never see them harm each other. I even saw four in a line today, not exactly schooling mind you, just four chasing in single file. Very amusing. A group, in close proximity, all pointed and moving in the same direction at the same speed, yeah I guess that fits the definition above, but I think they would call it a mad chase.

Danio? I never saw mine school, though they would dart about madly trying to keep each other roughly in sight. That is until they all died. And I don't know why they died. If they were schooling, it must have been recess.

AhhhHA! I went to the zebra danio link a few posts back. Apparently the z danio is a cool water fish, up to 75 degrees. Perhaps that is why I lost six in my tank of 78-80 degrees! They definitely do not school, but they did give my shark, who acts as the beat cop, some enforcement to do.

I'd reccomend harlequin rasboras. I used to have a bunch and they were almost always schooling.