# Best school fish



## Ericson Sy (13 Apr 2017)

Whats the best school fish could you suggest in an iwagumi set up? Thanks


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## MarkyP (13 Apr 2017)

harlequin rasbora are great shoal fish i have 26 and they stick together well. rummy nose tetras are another good one. if you have a black back ground cardinal tetras would look good


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## Vandal Gardener (13 Apr 2017)

I have to echo MarkyP - my harlequins seem to rival the rummy noses for schooling.  Harlequins in upper levels with rummy nosed at lower levels.  Depends what size of tank your using. My chilli rasboras in the nano seem pretty tight knit too.

I've got neons too but they only school when it's lights out or somethings spooked them.

ATB


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## zozo (13 Apr 2017)

A lot might absolutely disagree   But if it is a typical diorama style high light, high flow setup, minimalistically planted with mainly carpeting and sparsly some stem plants in the back.. Actualy non of the mid or top level schoolers are realy suitable for this. These type of fish need next to free swimming space also a lot of coverage if they feel like it. Are best at home in heavily planted tanks covering all these aspects. 

Iwagumi style is contrary, mainly all about wide open space highlighting the iwagumi hardscape with rather in majority low vegitation. Looking at nature a style like this as nature tank, more resambles faster flowing streams or open mid area laking marginal vegitation as overhang. Occasionaly you might be able to find schools of small fish like tetra's etc. at such locations in nature. But not as their main hanout location. If threatened or feel like it all will take refuge in the shallows dense vegitation. Laking this will oftenly result in strange unatural behaivor, like huddling all up togehter in a low corner of the tank close to the substrate. 

Imho, the best schooling fish for such a style are the bottom dwellers, Oto's or cory's etc.

But an Iwagumi can absolutely be stunningly beautifull with the use of floating vegitation not distracting the hardscape setup.. This will highly increase the numbers fish sp. which could feel comfy in it.

It also depends a bit on the room the tank is in.. Is this a bussy room whit pets and kids and visitors running around. Then the fish will get a lot of visual triggers to feel threatened. After all an aquarium is a very odd and rather unatural place for a fish to be, it sees everything what happens around it. It sees us as we see them.. Must be very strange and definitively can be a reason to oftenly feel unsafe and threatened. And can take a long time before they are used to all these new visual inputs they recieve. 

In a very quiet room with very little commotion an Awagumi could work very well with all kinds of fish. 

So these are all things to take into account and to think about, before one agrees or disagrees.


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## dw1305 (13 Apr 2017)

Hi all, 





Vandal Gardener said:


> 've got neons too but they only school when it's lights out or somethings spooked them.


Tight schooling is a fright response. When  your fish are tightly schooled they are stressed. 





zozo said:


> wagumi style is contrary, mainly all about wide open space highlighting the iwagumi hardscape with rather in majority low vegitation. Looking at nature a style like this as nature tank, more resambles faster flowing streams or open mid area laking marginal vegitation as overhang. Occasionaly you might be able to find schools of small fish like tetra's etc. at such locations in nature. But not as their main hanout location. If threatened or feel like it all will take refuge in the shallows dense vegitation. Laking this will oftenly result in strange unatural behaivor, like huddling all up togehter in a low corner of the tank close to the substrate.


That one.

cheers Darrel


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## Vandal Gardener (14 Apr 2017)

Hi Darrel,

Yeah that's why I said the neons only schooled when something's spooked them, when I first bought them I thought they'd be tight like the rummy noses but have learned to appreciate them for their individuality   The Rummys and harlequins hang in their collective groups although there's always a few who do their own thing unless as said it's lights out or spooked.

To be honest my apologies I only read best schooler yesterday not for Iwagami - my bad

Cheers


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## dw1305 (14 Apr 2017)

Hi all,





Vandal Gardener said:


> Yeah that's why I said the neons only schooled when something's spooked them, when I first bought them I thought they'd be tight like the rummy noses but have learned to appreciate them for their individuality   The Rummys and harlequins hang in their collective groups although there's always a few who do their own thing unless as said it's lights out or spooked.
> 
> To be honest my apologies I only read best schooler yesterday not for Iwagami - my bad


I'll be quite honest I'm not sure there is a good small fish for an Iwagumi, unless it has some floating plants. 

cheers Darrel


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## Vandal Gardener (14 Apr 2017)

Glad to hear your expertise -it's not my idea, as much as I like Iwagumi to look at I like too much of a diverse community which I think would distract from the scape. In fact I stuggle putting hardscape materials in to my tanks as grudge the space for fish/water/plants 

Hope you and everyone has a supah-dupah Easter weekend


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## zozo (14 Apr 2017)

As long as i'm in this hobby, fish were and still are the least respected pets in the trade. As if they are only respected for their ornamental value. The rest is viewed rather with false assumptions and excusses. Millions go over the counter each year, this because the same number goes down the drain. And actualy the rise of the aquascaping community didn't positively contribute to this issue at all. It should, but contrary is true, it made it actualy worse than it already was..  It promotes the hobby to be viewed even more from an ornamental perspective and anualy sell a few millions more.

Also the contests and the way it is judged have rather some lose ends. E.g IAPLC Judging Criteria point 1 “Recreation of natural habitat for fish” (50 points)" which is 50% of the total score.. But in reality, this seems to be judged differently and likely rather is subjected to personal opnion probably not all aware what they realy are judging.

And since it is all about contest, creteria and critique, showing and promoting it publicaly, i as member of the public feel as much in my right to critique it from my point of view.

No pun intended, just one example, the first i found.. Sorry Mark it was you, easilly could have been somebody else enough around.. 

See how it is promoted and what is said about it and what is totaly ignored.
http://tropica.com/en/inspiration/layout/Layout26/4958

Can't say we do not have the information.. Somebody just doesn't read it or just doesn't care and does what he wants or feels is right.
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/paracheirodon-innesi/

I'm not a Judge, not even an animal rights activist, just a spectator speaking his mind.. But if i were a judge.. I would disqualify this setup immediately.

There always was an still is something seriously wrong with this hobby.. 

Why? I would love to here some excuses and not try to laugh or cry..


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## Gonçalo Silva (14 Apr 2017)

Well, if we really really like nature in general we shouldn't have fish in an aquarium, birds in a cage or even a dog on a leach.


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## zozo (14 Apr 2017)

Gonçalo Silva said:


> birds in a cage


Absolutely agree, a bird is made to fly and not spend the majority of it's life on a stick behind bars.
And indeed many people shouldn't have pets at all, because their inability to properly care for them. It's not about love or loving nature. Because love is realy a very debatable concept.. Very far fetched but a serial killer loves to kill..Can't say he doesn't know what love is. The question is what and how do you love.

I think it is more about respect and the idea what respect is, is misinterpeted and taken for granted for the greater good.
How can one respect, ignoring what respect realy stands for and which action it requires?


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## dan4x4 (27 Apr 2017)

Gonçalo Silva said:


> Well, if we really really like nature in general we shouldn't have fish in an aquarium, birds in a cage or even a dog on a leach.



Yeah, i think the bond between man and dog is one of a kind and cannot be compared to any other form of animal husbandry other than the horse. To be fair I'm sure I read that man has developed the bond with dogs for approx 40,000 years. Furthermore a lot of dogs today couldn't survive without humans. However the spitz type dog, closely related to wolves and used by vikings maybe that would survive in the wild but due to loss of habitat etc it would probably struggle in present day.

To be fair at the rate things are going, people keeping fish and birds are going to be the only way certain species survive.. which makes me mad.


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## Gonçalo Silva (28 Apr 2017)

dan4x4 said:


> Yeah, i think the bond between man and dog is one of a kind and cannot be compared to any other form of animal husbandry other than the horse. To be fair I'm sure I read that man has developed the bond with dogs for approx 40,000 years. Furthermore a lot of dogs today couldn't survive without humans. However the spitz type dog, closely related to wolves and used by vikings maybe that would survive in the wild but due to loss of habitat etc it would probably struggle in present day.
> 
> To be fair at the rate things are going, people keeping fish and birds are going to be the only way certain species survive.. which makes me mad.



I didn't say that we shouldn't keep dogs, I said dogs on a leash/chain. if you have a nice house with a large backyard I think that a dog would be happy. 
Same for the fish. If you have the florestas submersas aquarium I think fish will be very happy.


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## dan4x4 (28 Apr 2017)

Yeah I understand, I have like a really protective dog. He always has to be leaded up when outside my house and when visitors come. He's happy because I think the dogs bond with people has developed as the dog evolved. 

However he loves to get off the lead, but its very rare it happens. If he see's another dog its like rolling dice. I love all animals on this planet but I know he'd rather be with his pack than without out 

Hes "too old to train" but to be fair I wouldn't have any other way because its rough in some areas round mine, if someone comes at us he's gonna make them wish the thought never entered their head. He's awesome. Totally one of a kind, he got in a horse field once and rounded all the horses up into the corner ha. I may add he diddnt hurt them just scared them.


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## alto (29 Apr 2017)

dan4x4 said:


> he got in a horse field once and rounded all the horses up into the corner ha. I may add he diddnt hurt them just scared them.



Careful of that, I've a horse who thinks it's great fun to attack dogs .... & he can be very sneaky about it


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## dean (7 May 2017)

Well there's lots of points here to take in consideration this sunny Sunday morning as I lay in bed with my Doberman next to me yes head on a pillow too 

I think a high percentage or fish that are available are farm raised so they have not experienced plants let alone leaf litter etc 
So for those fish even an iwagumi style of aquarium is an improvement 

Take goldfish for example, cheap easily available and most are bred in tropical countries so is it right to bring it to the uk put it in a suitable pond that will freeze over in the winter ? Or is it better in an aquarium with discus in Thailand ?

So you see it all contradicts itself

Personally I hate the fact millions of fish die each day because they are disposable pets 

But if everyone kept and bred their fish then there would be no need for aquarium shops so getting new species of fish and even plants locally wouldn't be possible as there simply wouldn't be a trade anymore 
Obviously this would be an animal rights ideal world   

But then where would we be without the option to go fish shopping on our day off ?

So that brings me to the point that actually aquascapers are just as bad as fish keepers 
I.e. The fish are just pretty additions to the project ok they may be well looked after but they are still just bits of interior decoration 

So if you want to be "right" then the only thing you can do is a biotope style aquarium and let's face it that will never happen as most streams, rivers & lakes are pretty sparsely planted places 

So all I can say is as long as the fish you purchase are kept in the correct size aquarium and in the correct numbers and in A1 water quality then buy whatever you like 

Big respect to anyone who has biotope aquariums as they are the true slice of nature 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sciencefiction (7 May 2017)

This video may help in choosing schooling fish. It is by Rachel O'leary and she also has videos on species profile, all about nano fish, so its worth searching for some more videos by her, to help you make your choice.


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## roadmaster (8 May 2017)

I only really ever pursued live  plant's for their ability to help improve /maintain water quality for the fishes I care for.
Was all plastic plant's before I began in earnest to study how best to grow the real thing.
Don't believe fishes could tell between real or artificial.


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