Will Cardinal tetras school with Flame tetras?

I have 6 cardinal tetras, and 6 glass catfish, some of the glass cats sometimes school with the tetras. When I get my 6 flame tetras, will they school with the 6 cardinal tetras?

 

Absolutely, my Ornate tetras schooled with my Sarpae. Tetras and barbs will school together reguardless of type.

 

IME they do not school together. Barbs and tetras don't either. Of course if you keep them in a small enough tank it may LOOK like they are schooling together, but I assure you in a larger tank they will all stick with their own kind. And if you keep them in too small a number they may swim together, but that would be a pretty selfish thing to do because if given the chance they would not do so.

I have 3 different types of tetras in a 30 gallon and they all stick with their own kind.

I have 2 types of tetras together in a 45 and they ignore one another.

I also have barbs and 2 types of tetras in a 29 and they too have nothing to do with one another.

 

IME they do not school together. Barbs and tetras don't either. Of course if you keep them in a small enough tank it may LOOK like they are schooling together, but I assure you in a larger tank they will all stick with their own kind. And if you keep them in too small a number they may swim together, but that would be a pretty selfish thing to do because if given the chance they would not do so. I have 3 different types of tetras in a 30 gallon and they all stick with their own kind. I have 2 types of tetras together in a 45 and they ignore one another. I also have barbs and 2 types of tetras in a 29 and they too have nothing to do with one another.

You completely missed what I said and thought way to deep into what I said.

What I was saying is that if you mixed for example rosy barbs and tiger barbs in the same tank they would school together. If you mixed cardial tetras and phantom tetras they would school together.

IME all of my tetras schooled together.

 

I have cardinals and flame tetras in my 30 gallon tank, and they do not school together.

 

You completely missed what I said and thought way to deep into what I said.

What I was saying is that if you mixed for example rosy barbs and tiger barbs in the same tank they would school together. If you mixed cardial tetras and phantom tetras they would school together.

IME all of my tetras schooled together.

I didn't misread anything. Barbs of different species do not school together either.

I was providing a comprehensive answer to the question.

 

Tetras and barbs will school together reguardless of type.

You should consider refraining from such absolute statements, especially when they aren't accurate. It's one thing to list your experiences, and another entirely to made this sort of broad statement that is inclusive of so many different types of fish.

To the OP:
In general, there is a chance that fish of similar body shape and size will school together. I have cherry barbs, neon tetras, cardinal tetras, and flame tetras. None of the groups harms any other, but in my tank, neither do they school with each other. Flame tetras are quite different in shape and size from cardinals. I think that the odds of them schooling are small, although anything is possible.

 

Any one confusing schoal with school in this thread

 

I've kept more than a dozen different types of tetras and none of them ever schooled with anything other than their own kind. But my schools were always at least 6 strong. I suppose of you kept them in inappropriate numbers there's a higher chance that they may school together, but as I said that is not indicative of how the species normally acts. Keeping them in an unnatural setting is sure to produce unnatural results.

I've kept 6 species of barbs and have mixed them a few times, and they never schooled with each other. Again, I always had at least 6 or 7 and they had enough room that they weren't together by default. In my 90, the cherry and gold barbs have nothing to do with one another. For a period of time I had rosy barbs in there with the cherries and golds, and all three species did their own thing.

Sometimes fish do things that they don't normally do. One of our members had some super aggressive cherry barbs that killed other fish. This is NOT normal behavior, and to go around telling people that it is is misleading. When you have fish that are not acting like they are "supposed" to, the best thing to do is see what other people who keep the fish have to say about it. If 9 out of 10 people say that's not how their fish act, then you know your fish are the exception and not the rule.

The only fish I know of that actively school with different species are rainbows.


For the purpose of this discussion, the difference between shoaling and schooling is not important. Very few fish can ACTUALLY school in an aquarium because there is just not enough space. Most species "shoal" in the aquarium because they cannot school. It's not like there are schooling fish and shoaling fish - it's just a matter of what the group is doing at that moment. Fish are either on the move (schooling) or hanging out (shoaling).