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Schooling fish are some of the most interesting fish to keep. One of the most enjoyable scenes in an aquarium is a group of beautiful and colorful fish swimming in unison, changing directions in an instant, yet never colliding with each other. These fish tend to be very active, energetic, and a lot of fun to watch. Most schooling fish are also very hardy fish that can be kept well in just a 10 to 20 gallon aquarium and will take all sorts of food. And sometimes, a school of fish can even be used to distract aggressive fish from fighting.

The three hardiest and most common schooling fish for the aquarium are barbs, danios, and tetras. Barbs and danios belong to the large Cyprinid family of freshwater tropical fish which also includes all koi, carp, goldfish, and minnows. Tetras belong to the smaller Characin family. Now, let us take a closer look at these fascinating schooling fish.

Tetras

Tetras come in a huge variety of colors and patterns, and two of the most popular ones are the Neon Tetra and the Cardinal Tetra. These two are quite attractive red and blue fish. The red line on the Cardinal runs from the head on back, while in the Neon it starts only in the belly region. These two tetras do need slightly more soft and acidic water, with a pH between 6 and 6.5.

There are also plenty of hardier tetras out there for beginners without special water, and they are often just as beautiful and exciting. These include the distinctive Black or Black Skirt Tetra, the brightly colored Glow Light Tetra, the radiant orange Jewel Tetra, the Flame Tetra, and the red-tailed Pristella Tetra. All of the tetras mentioned stay at a manageable maximum size of about two inches long or less. All tetras are best kept in groups of six or more of the same species.

Barbs

There are many kinds of barbs to choose from as well, with the most popular ones being Cherry Barbs and Tiger Barbs. Small and manageable (stays under two inches long), with a beautiful orange-red to cherry-red coloration, Cherry Barbs are terrific beginner fish that are peaceful, long-lived and school well. They are best kept in small schools of either three or four.

The Tiger Barb is a very beautiful and colorful barb that usually has four blue-black bands running across the body, with bright red-orange fins. The rest of the body is a brown-orange color and the back is almost like an olive green. The scales when viewed under the right light have an iridescent gold or brass look to them. The males are usually slimmer and more colorful than the females. Tiger Barbs are also extremely playful and curious fish. The only drawback is that Tiger Barbs are known to nip the fins of long-finned fish such as Angelfish or fancy Bettas. This problem can be alleviated by keeping them in schools of at least six of the same species.

Danios

Like the other schooling fish mentioned above, danios are also very energetic and fast fish that are a lot of fun to watch. In the meantime, they are very peaceful and non-aggressive fish that have almost zero reputation for bothering any other fish in a community tank. Most danios are also quite hardy and easy to keep, great for beginners. They will do great in groups of five or six.

Some of the most popular danios are the Giant Danio and Zebra Danio. The Giant Danio can grow up to four inches long and is a very hardy fish. The bottom of its body is a bluish gray, while their fins are transparent with just a hint of yellow. The most striking color comes from the yellow and blue stripes and markings that cover the Giant Danio’s sides.

The Zebra Danio has been called one of the “bread and butter” fish because of its ease of keeping, continued popularity, and its favorable price and availability. The males have gold stripes and blue-black stripes and females tend to have silver stripes in place of the gold ones. Zebra Danios grow up to about two or three inches long. They are slightly less hardy than most other tropical fish in terms of temperatures, doing best at a lower temperature of 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

As for food, barbs, danios, and tetras are largely omnivorous (eating both animal and vegetable foods) and will eat just about anything. They will eat dried, commercial flake food or freeze dried foods, but should also occasionally be treated to live foods such as blood worms, brine shrimp, and mosquito larvae. The best temperature for most tropical fish, including most schooling fish (unless otherwise stated) in this article, is around 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the pH range should be between 6 and 8.

Most barbs, danios, and tetras do not pose a problem when mixed together, including males. They may sometimes break out of schools and chase each other, but usually they do not cause any trouble or injury as they are simply enjoying life and having fun. And although a few schooling fish such as the Tiger Barb may nip the fins of some long-finned fish, as long as they are kept in a school of five or six of their own species, they will cause no trouble.

One thing to avoid with schooling fish is adding a new member to the school. Any school of fish will establish a pecking order in the aquarium. When you add a new member of this species, then entire school order is disrupted. The established members of the school are healthy, familiar with each other, and adapted to life in your aquarium. The newly introduced member of the school has not had the opportunity to settle into your aquarium and is stressed from the move. The easy solution to this problem is to simply add all of the members of a school to the aquarium on the same day.

All in all, schooling fish can add spectacular color, beauty, energy, and fun to a community aquarium. If you have not tried schooling fish yet, there is no reason not to. Beautiful, easy-to-keep, and relatively inexpensive, most are ideal for the beginning hobbyist yet exciting enough for the seasoned fish owner. If you have any questions regarding schooling fish and their care, just ask us and we will help you any way we can.

Many people keep fish as pets or as a hobby. A lot of fish have their own personalities, and sometimes will act in very interesting ways. They have different ways of interacting with each other and with the people who take care of them. Keeping fish is a fun and interesting pastime, and it usually does not take a lot of time or energy. This is especially true as fish keeping over the years has gotten easier. Today, there are newer and better filters, and a lot more information regarding fish keeping.

In this article, we will give you a list of the timeless classics to keep in mind when it comes to raising fish and maintaining your aquarium in good working order. The following is a list of guidelines that pertains to tropical freshwater fish. Most fish owners keep tropical freshwater fish, and there are nearly endless varieties to choose from (please check out the Pet World fact article on tropical freshwater fish to determine if your fish is a tropical freshwater fish).

1. To prevent cracks and fissures, as well as wobbling and instability, make sure your aquarium is set on a flat, strong surface, such as an aquarium stand.
2. After you set up your aquarium, you must wait for it to become established before adding any fish. Aquariums are considered established after 6 to 8 weeks. Established means that there are enough beneficial bacteria present to break down the toxins from the food and waste.
3. After your aquarium has had the 6 to 8 weeks to get established, start adding the fish a few at a time. When adding new fish, make sure that you acclimate them to your aquarium: first float the bag containing the fish in the tank for about 5 minutes, then add about 8 ounces of aquarium water into the bag. Do this about 5 times, adding water every 5 minutes or so. Then you may empty the bag with the fish into the aquarium.
4. Do not overcrowd the tank. Keep about one fish or less per gallon of aquarium water. Usually the rule is that a fish that is approximately 1 inch long should have one gallon of water, and a fish that grows up to approximately 2 inches long should have two gallons of water for itself, and so on.
5. The pH range of interest to the tropical fish keeper is between pH 5 and pH 9, with the vast majority of fish requiring a pH between 6 and 8. The pH range quoted for a given species may be based on its native waters. Although it might be desirable to mimic these conditions to some extent, the fish may be quite capable of thriving at a slightly different pH. All in all, providing a stable pH kept between about 6 and 8 is usually more important than having an exact value, as long as extremes and sudden changes are avoided. Aquarium pH testers and testing kits are carried at your local pet store.
6. A good temperature for tropical fish is around 78 degrees, although a range from 76 to 80 degrees is usually fine too. Just as with the pH, providing a stable temperature kept between about 76 and 80 is usually more important than having an exact value, as long as extremes and sudden changes are avoided. A few types of tropical fish, such as goldfish, are extremely hardy when it comes to temperatures and they usually do not need heaters in their aquariums. Thermometers are carried at your local pet store.
7. Feed your fish very sparingly, as fish can be easily overfed. You can feed your fish 1 or 2 times per day, but just a few flakes per fish, and make sure that all food can be finished in about 5 to 10 minutes. Never allow food to accumulate on the bottom of the tank or get sucked up into the filter. You can prevent this by not overfeeding. Remember that overfeeding is one of the biggest contributors to dirty aquariums and sick fish. There is also a more detailed article dedicated to the subject of fish foods and proper feeding techniques on the Pet World facts page, click here to get to it.
8. For the first 6 weeks after setting up an aquarium, change about 1/3 of the aquarium water about once a week for smaller aquariums (10 to 20 gallon tanks), and do this once every other week for larger aquariums (larger than 20 gallons).
9. After the first 6 weeks, you should continue to change aquarium water (1/3 only, never all) about once a month, to help keep your aquarium clean and your fish healthy. You may need to change your water more often if you keep a lot of fish in your aquarium as it will get dirty quicker. You should also change the water right away if the water looks very cloudy or if the fish look stressed. Always make sure to condition or dechlorinate the new water and get it to about the same temperature as the existing water before adding it to the tank.
10. Make sure that all filters and heaters are working well. Also make sure that you buy a large enough filter. Buy one that is larger than the manufacture recommends for your size aquarium. If you use a carbon filter, change the carbon filter on your tank about once a month. It is usually better to use an under-gravel filter with a power head and a power filter.

Koi are tropical freshwater fish that belong to the carp family. In fact, today’s beautiful and world-renowned koi were developed from common food carp by fish farmers in Japan over 200 years ago by selectively breeding the occasional fish found with some color or pattern on it. Today koi have become popular just about everywhere and are bred in every country. Currently, they are considered to be the most popular and most highly prized freshwater ornamental pond fish.

Koi and carp have always been very popular in Japan and China, and in most parts of Asia. Koi, and its direct ancestor the carp, have long been the stuff of legend in this part of the world. To the Japanese, carp and koi traditionally embody strength, courage and determination. The Chinese call koi the king of freshwater fish, and regard it as a symbol of good fortune and celebration. Koi are often referred to as “living jewels” or “swimming flowers” because of their tremendous color and color variations. All koi have similarly shaped bodies and fins, but they come in a variety of different colors and patterns such as gold, silver, orange, red, blue, black, white, and all kinds of combinations of these colors. All koi also come with adorable whiskers on their faces, called barbels.

Koi can grow up to 3 feet (36 inches) in length and can weigh over 5 pounds each! The growth rate and final size of your koi will also depend on water quality and conditions, feeding methods, and the size of the pond or how crowded the pool is. With optimum conditions, the average growth rate for a healthy koi is 2 to 4 inches at the end of the first year, 6 to 8 inches at the end of the second year, and 10 to 12 inches at the end of the third year. After the third year, the growth pattern slows down as the koi nears its maximum length.

Koi are very hardy and are fairly easy to keep, and also have a pretty long lifespan. Most koi can live at least 25 to 35 years, and with good water conditions and proper care, 50 to 100 years would not be unusual. In Japan, koi are frequently passed on to the next generation. The oldest known specimen, a red female named Hanako, was owned by Nagoya University President Komei Koshihara. Though Hanako died in 1977, a microscopic examination of one of her scales proved that she was born 226 years before her death in 1977 – she was born a few years before the United States made its debut as a nation!

To have the best quality koi that look the best and that are disease free, proper care is essential. Having adequate pond space is a very important part of this care. In fact, pond size is the main factor in determining how many koi you can keep and the quality of your koi. You can try to put half a dozen koi in 1000 gallons, but the koi will probably not grow very large or look very good. As a rule of thumb, every full size koi should have about 500 gallons to itself.

The other reason for having adequate pond space is that the smaller or more overcrowded a pond (or an aquarium) is, the lower the quality of the water. Overcrowding koi in a pond will contribute to fish stress, and greater potential for parasitic diseases and bacterial infections. Having adequate space in the pond will help the koi stay healthy and live long. The pond should also be deep enough, at least 3 feet deep. This will keep your pond cooler in the summer months, warmer in the winter months, and keep predators like raccoons and herons from eating your fish.

In the old days back in Japan, these gorgeous creatures were housed in lushly landscaped outdoor fish ponds. The ponds were constructed to provide adequate oxygenation and had a large turnover of water to ensure high water quality and filtration. With a little bit of energy and time, you can also create such an environment for your koi, or at least get pretty close to it. You can rely on either natural methods, mechanical methods, or a combination of both to achieve a healthy pond with proper aeration and filtration.

The natural method usually consists of planting some water plants in the pond to provide sufficient oxygenation and aeration for the fish, and adding a few scavengers such as snails and catfish into the pond for cleaning up wastes from the bottom of the pond. In addition to providing oxygenation and aeration, water plants also serve to further beautify your pond, help keep the water clear, and help reduce the growth of algae that can be unsightly and consume too many nutrients from the water.

If you find that your pond is not being kept clean and clear enough by natural methods, or if you plan to keep a lot of koi in the pond, you may want to use mechanical methods or a combination of natural and mechanical methods for the aeration and filtration of your pond. You would also probably need to use mechanical methods for aeration and filtration if you are keeping your koi in an aquarium, though aquarium use is not recommended for koi unless the aquarium is of a very good size. A good pump and filter system will filter the pond’s (or aquarium’s) entire volume every couple of hours, removing solid and chemical waste from your pond pretty much completely.

You can get filters that come with aerators built into them. These filters will return the water to the pond by a waterfall or fountain, which not only looks very nice but also aerates the pond extremely well. Another type of popular filter is the biological filter, which is a container that is usually filled with a medium on which bacteria will grow, and they would consume most of the waste from the water. Whichever filter you use, you should clean it at least twice a year to keep it working properly and efficiently.

With sufficient natural and/or mechanical aeration and filtration, cleaning or changing the pond water once a year in the early spring should be sufficient. However, if you notice your pond getting pretty dirty and overgrown with algae, or if you suspect chemical pollution, then you might want to change the water. In that case, change 20% of the water in your pond once a week or so for a few weeks. This simply means removing about 20% of the old water from your pond and replacing it with fresh tap water from the faucet. Avoid changing all the water at once. Scooping out leaves and other debris from the pond regularly using a net is another easy way to help keep the water clean and clear.

Overall, koi are remarkably hardy and healthy fish, much more so than even goldfish or other tropical fish. Koi can withstand a wide range of temperatures. Healthy koi can even survive under the ice in extreme cold as long as the water does not freeze solid. They will not move around or eat much if the pond water is very cold, basically hibernating. Needless to say, koi generally do not need heating. Of course, for optimum health and comfort of the fish, it is recommended that you avoid huge fluctuations in temperature and pH of the water, and perhaps use some heating during the winter months. As for food, feeding koi once or twice a day is good. There are a variety of pellet fish foods that are specially designed for koi. Koi can also be fed dried or fresh shrimp, lettuce, cooked rice or cooked oats.

Keeping koi requires some space and work, but raising them is a very fascinating and rewarding hobby. Their beauty, fame, hardiness, and longevity make them well worth it. For the avid koi enthusiast, there are koi shows in which koi compete according to their size and class, often for huge prizes. There are also hundreds of koi clubs throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world.