KentFishFanUK

I was thinking of rice fish in an outdoor tub. By blue eyes rainbows do you mean like furcata rainbows? They look amazing but didn't think I could have them in such a small tank? Lampeyes are cool too.

Lol how big? I was thinking of a big ugly tote to use as an outdoor tub for rice fish

Kubotais and chillis are awesome but being so tiny and liking bigger groups I was thinking of saving them for bigger tanks and huge schools. CPDs might work nicely though. Badis badis was definitely one of the top contenders for me too. And don't tell anyone but I don't really like shrimp or snails a whole lot 🤫 lol I know they seem almost universally loved on every forum I check out but just not really for me.

So a 2.5 works for you? I think I would use to dose meds and/or salt without killing plants as all my other tanks will have plants, I'll keep an extra sponge filter going in one of my regular tanks to use in the hospital and when. That was my plan anyway, I'm sure I'll find out it won't work for some reason haha

So I have been stocking up on second hand tanks ready for my fish room (well fish shed). So far I have four 7.5 Gallon tanks and one 15 Gallon tank. So far I'm thinking a small colony of multi's for the 15 gallon. For the 7.5 gallon tanks I am thinking a pair of peacock Gudgeons in one, two or three clown killifish in another. I was thinking 1 - 3 dwarf puffers in another but pretty much been talked out of that option until I get another larger tank for a group of 6. Possibly a pair of scarlet badis if I can find a female. I was thinking maybe a pair of GBRs but according to seriously fish they need a 60 cm tank as a minimum? So yeah I have two 7.5 gallon tanks I'm looking for unique ideas for! One may end up as a hospital/quarantine tank unless my cheap plastic 2.5 gallon tank would suffice as a hospital? I also have a (free) 8ish gallon BIORB tank coming which will house a Betta in the kitchen and already have a 20 gallon community in the house with neon tetras, panda corydoras and some male endlers. So I think I'll stick to species tanks in the fish room. Any ideas?

Perfect solution thanks!

Is there some way to save this thread to refer to later? I can see myself doing this at some point! Thanks everyone

Ours goes outside, she never catches birds or anything (despite being a stray before we adopted her) only the odd fly or bug but I think I would be pushing my luck if I fed birds on the ground. We also live by the coast and always have seagulls nesting which are quite aggressive when nesting and would be more than a match for our cat so don't want to encourage her chasing birds! She hasn't paid any attention to our fish tank but does like to watch the goldfish in the pond

Almost makes me wish I didn't have a cat, I love birds! There are a few house sparrows that nest in the eaves of our neighbors house a few feet away from our bathroom window and I love watching them coming and going and feeding their babies whilst I shower haha.

Interesting behaviour! (Also what an awesome thing to watch). Also makes me wonder, do fish communicate in any appreciable way? Other than the flaring/fighting/chasing etc that we know about related to breeding or territory.

Thanks for the well thought out reply! This is the content I joined the forum for! Thanks for expanding my knowledge about schooling fish. I had only considered that they instinctively feel safer with big groups but spreading out 'look-out' duties and therefore reducing the workload on each individual must reduce stress and allow more time for eating and breeding etc. Holds true for any herd/pack animal I would imagine! Also good tip for breeding right there, increased competition results in stronger fry. Let's nature do more of the selecting right. I will remember that one!

Thanks! And interesting answer! It makes sense that it's even more important for fry given their survival chances in the wild. I hadn't thought about the looking out for food aspect but again it does make sense and is a good reason to keep groups even with species that many say would do fine alone etc. Definitely something to consider when thinking about stocking levels! Or at least be on the look out for when keeping smaller groups.

@CT_ @Zenzo I love the idea of encouraging more 'everyday science' experiments. Even if a grant isn't a feasible idea maybe members who are willing to do an experiment could post their idea and how they would do it, then we could vote for forum favourites or something? Then the community could chime in to refine the proposed process and any experiments we all really get behind maybe we could all support by like ordering the required items from an Amazon wishlist? (Or aquarium co op wishlist if that's possible, in the UK here so never ordered before and have no idea). Would have to be reasonably simple stuff and not require anything of great expense (unless the experimenter is willing to shell out lots of their own money) but it's an idea. Even just simple stuff like, "which particular food brand seems to encourage more spawning from panda corydoras" - I don't have the time or means to do that experiment myself but would happily order one of the foods for that experiment as I'd like to see the results! Could be fun.

Good to know! Thought they were supposed to be shy lol. I like small tanks so these are sounding better and better!

You know what, I hadn't even considered the $ angle, but now I think about it it has to be a factor right, like both ways because they want to sell more fish but they also know if they told you you had to buy 100 of them they know noone would buy any so they have to give a reasonable/believable number. So yeah good point, it absolutely could be a marketing thing!

Just worked out what CPDs were, nice! Saw some today at the LFS for the first time and they are so lovely I am definitely going to have to try them sometime. I've seen pictures of them before but they don't do them justice somehow, they are like one of those fish you need to see with your own eyes to understand the appeal I think.

Don't be sorry I'm totally only guessing/thinking out loud! The whole point was to invite discussion so thanks for replying in the first place! I appreciate the input 🙂

You may be right but most people seem to advise minimum 6 even for shoaling fish. Maybe its because of the confusion between the difference? I've also heard reports that if you want to see schooling from a species that does that then you need way more than 6 for the most part so still doesn't explain the magic number really.

Haha! And yeah makes sense if you want two boys but why not just one boy and two girls for total of 3 as a starting point then? And increase by increments of 3? Do the boys need the competition to reach their full potential maybe? That could certainly be one explanation.

I think the odd number thing is something to do with spreading out aggression? Though I can only think that makes 3 better than 2, can't work out why 3 would ever be better than 4 for example. But then we are getting into the realms of mathematics and my brain just doesn't compute haha. Interesting about the Danios! Care to describe what about their behaviour changed? I don't know much about danios but I guess I just always pictured them zooming about regardless of group size haha. Was it a linearly gradual change to behaviour as each died off or did you notice a bigger change at certain numbers? i.e. did you happen to notice if going from 7 to 6 wasn't much change but 6 to 5 was a big difference? Or was going from 6 to 5 the same effect as 7 to 6? Basically I'm curious if you noticed anything special about the number 6 I guess? Or any other number for that matter.

Absolutely I totally agree it's the place to start, just wondered why we ended up there as the starting point. Often people say the same as you that their🤦‍♂️ school hid all the time until they had say 10, or 12 or whatever - so how comes 10 isn't the minimum? Similarly others say that a lower number worked for them. Maybe just years of hobbyists comparing notes reached 6 as the number most saw their fish get more active. I have to admit though that when I went from 4 to 6 panda corydoras there was no appreciable difference in behaviour (at least to my inexperienced eyes). Even when they were only 4 they were super active and not shy or skittish, spending all day snuffling around like they do (so cute could watch them for hours). I still increased their number to 6 after a week or so as that was what I had planned for (to be honest they are such a joy to watch if I had the space I'd happily double that number over getting something else in) but it didn't make any difference to their behaviour - there was just more of them doing it. I have a sneaking suspicion that having the right set up (maybe not too bright lights, shade, floating plants, hiding places, substrate colour etc) and even things like time of day/night might have more to do with their behaviour than strictly group size. My lights aren't bright plus I have floating plants and moderate to heavy planting in the tank, wood and rocks and a dark substrate and so maybe I accidentally made an environment they felt safer in regardless of numbers? This is probably different from species to species and even between individuals so maybe wouldn't work all the time but still gets me thinking. Although another thing I noticed was one of my cories (the biggest) that I had from the start seems to be even more outgoing and confident etc than the rest, the others seem to almost follow it's lead so maybe I just got lucky and got a really brave fishy and that rubs off on the rest of them in a typical herd mentality kind of way. Then again I only added my (8) neon tetras today so what do I know! Just find it all so fascinating. pan widget

Just something I was pondering and wondered what you experts thought - Every time we talk schooling/shoaling or even just most small fish we obviously say they prefer to be in groups right. I get that that's because of how they live in the wild, safety in numbers etc. When stocking our aquariums the majority of species that like to be in groups (or at least the common ones I own or have looked into - be it Corydoras, neon tetras, multi's, some even say it about pea puffers and endlers and I'm sure many many more) the most common general consensus seems to be that the bare minimum number is 6. What makes 6 the magic number? I understand more is always better and that in the wild they would live in huge colonies but why 6 as the bare minimum? Why not 5? Or 10? Or 20? Or 2? Is there a scientific reason? Was there a well thought of scientific paper about it? Simply an amount people have observed as working in most situations? Cynically is it perhaps just the largest 'minimum' us hobbyists could stomach or be convinced of? I mean fish can't count right - and surely 6 Corydoras in a 20 gallon might all hang out but 6 Corydoras in an 800 gallon might not even be aware of each others existence. And 1 in 6 odds of not dying to a predator wouldn't make me feel very particularly safe. To be clear I'm only curious not doubtful, it's almost more of a question of understanding the history of the hobby and where the number 6 came from than anything else. Oh and sorry if this topic has been done, just trying to start an interesting conversation and hear others insights!

I know this post isn't helpful as I have no idea about your question but felt like I had to say it anyway (sorry) - I absolutely love your stocking list! Those are all dream fish for me when I have my fish room set up. If you get a chance I'd love to see pictures of your tank/fish

Awesome content! Did you do anything to get them to spawn? I know Cory talks about feeding them really well but I'm not really sure if by well he means good quality or lots of quantity or something more specific. How do you know they are ready/old enough etc? I can't even work out the sex of my panda's, they all kind of look the same shape to me. I have seen one smallish one in particular kind of chasing one of the biggest ones and sort of nudging the big ones belly, is that breeding behaviour? Sorry for all the questions!

What about clown killifish? No idea if they are compatible with your other fish/tank parameters but if they are then they are both colourful and quite dark with the black on them too