Amnagrla

I have found an article on wikipedia.org. I searched for "fish" and this was one of the topics. I found it interesting.... I thought you might, too!

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"Fish" or "fishes", "school" or '"shoal"?

Though often used interchangeably, these pairs of words actually mean different things. Fish is used either as singular noun or to describe a group of specimens from a single species. Fishes describes a group containing more than one species.
Hence, as plurals, these words could be used thus:

~My aquarium contains three different fishes: guppies, platies, and swordtails.
~The North Atlantic stock of Gadus morhua is estimated to contain several million fish.

A random assemblage of fishes merely using some localised resource such as food or nesting sites is known simply as an aggregation. When fish come together in an interactive, social grouping, then they may be forming either a shoal or a school depending on the degree of organisation. A shoal is a loosely organised group where each fish swims and forages independently but is attracted to other members of the group and adjusts its behaviour, such as swimming speed, so that it remains close to the other members of the group. Schools of fish are much more tightly organised, synchronising their swimming so that all fish move at the same speed and in the same direction. Shoaling and schooling behaviour is believed to provide a variety of advantages (see article on swarming, the term used to cover such behaviours in animals).

Cichlids congregating at lekking sites form an aggregation.
Many minnows and characins form shoals.
Classic examples of schooling fish are anchovies, herrings, and silversides.

It should be noted that while school and shoal have different meanings within biology, they are often treated as synonyms by non-specialists, with speakers of British English using "shoal" to describe any grouping of fish, while speakers of American English often using "school" just as loosely.

Neville

hey Amanda!
that's some really interesting information u got . i didn't know the difference between these things. Thanks.

armadillo

Thanks, Amanda. Interesting.

Although I'd feel funny referring to the contents of my community tank as fishes (I say fish to mean all of them, although there's multiple species).

Amnagrla

lol I hear ya. Just thought it was helpful to know.

I think I'm going to sticky it for a little bit (not forever... maybe a month or less) so other people see it.

COBettaCouple

you're not going to sticky it until the oceans run dry and the stars go dim?

Amnagrla

lol unless people WANT me too!?

I just figure, if we keep up with the amount of stickied subjects we do a month.... there will be 10,000 stickied topics!!

armadillo

True, we have to watch it a it, or everything under the sun will get stickied. Me? Am all for grand sticky schemes like caresheets and photos! One brooooooad sweep

COBettaCouple

I think you must have had a pet post-it notes tablet as a child.

Butterfly

Very interesting information
Carol

Xenomorph

You could always make a shoal of loosly related interesting articles into one sticky

COBettaCouple

yes.. i think that i must've gone to shoal instead of school. :P

Cody

i love some of the things you find on the internet..thanks for sharing

Amnagrla

lol thanks!