New schooling fish... - Page 2

Mappelbaum37 · 02/03/2008, 03:56 PM

good to know.. thanks

hahnmeister · 02/03/2008, 04:32 PM

In such a small tank, I doubt any fish will show their natural schooling behavior. Most of the time, they just end up wandering around on their own.

A schooling fish tends to need a couple things to stimulate the behavior: 1. a large enough tank for there to be perceived territories/open areas. Even if you have a large tank, but it is full of rock (no open areas), they arent likely to want to school.
2. the perception of a predator. IT could just be a large fish in the tank, or a small one that swims through them alot at high speed... not an actual predator, but something that makes them feel that schooling (a defensve mechanism) is needed for survival. A large tang that swims around might work, but if they catch on that the tang isnt a threat (unless the tang harasses them from time to time) they might break away from the school. A good size wrasse that is terrotorial would be good.

02/03/2008, 03:56 PM	#26
Mappelbaum37 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New York Posts: 886	good to know.. thanks __________________ Matt Current Tank Info: 75 gallon reef

02/03/2008, 04:32 PM	#27
hahnmeister Moved On Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Brew City, WI Posts: 10,156	In such a small tank, I doubt any fish will show their natural schooling behavior. Most of the time, they just end up wandering around on their own. A schooling fish tends to need a couple things to stimulate the behavior: 1. a large enough tank for there to be perceived territories/open areas. Even if you have a large tank, but it is full of rock (no open areas), they arent likely to want to school. 2. the perception of a predator. IT could just be a large fish in the tank, or a small one that swims through them alot at high speed... not an actual predator, but something that makes them feel that schooling (a defensve mechanism) is needed for survival. A large tang that swims around might work, but if they catch on that the tang isnt a threat (unless the tang harasses them from time to time) they might break away from the school. A good size wrasse that is terrotorial would be good.