Will my neon tetras school with cardinal tetras?

hey everyone! I have 5 neon tetras right now and I have just moved some of my fish to open up room for a few more in my 20 gallon. I have thought of a few options on what I want to do. I thought maybe I could get a few cardinal tetras like 3 maybe 4 at tops. Do you think they would school with my neon tetras??? I don't really ant to get the full 5 or 6 of them id prefer 3 and if they won't school to be happy I would rather go with something else to contrast the neon tetras. I was thinking maybe more harlequins with the cardinals an that would op the tank off or I could get harlequins and cories or just some pristellas let me no your opinions please!!! thanks for the help!!!

 

In my experience they do not school together. Cardinals tend to be middle - top while neons are middle-bottom swimmers. In such a small tank, more of one species looks better then a few of a few species.

 

Mine have always schooled together, along with glowlights as well. Jaysee does have a lot more knowledge than me though... I suppose it depends on the number of tetra.

 

okay thanks for the really quick replies haha!! I understand where your coming from jaysee that's why I was thinking the cardinals and neons could school together and id add to the school of harlequins to have bigger schools. Or I couldgo with a different route if they don't school together. ppate1977 how many cardinal and neons did you have??
do you think that 5 neons and 3 cardinals would school?? ive looked into I onthe web and a lot of people say tetras that are similar in shaoe and size will school together but other people disagree so I'm caught in the middle hahaha

 

I also had them together in a tall tank - What area of a tank they swim in is more pronounced the taller the tank is. For me they occupied different regions in the water so there was no occasion to school. maybe they do in smaller tanks.

 

o maybe I'm not sure haha my 20 gallon is a long so there isn't much of a difference in the levels although I will admit the harlequins are always at the top level, and neons are towards the bottom but also middle. in the lfs I get my fish from the cardinals are always at the bottom level of the tank and its the same size as mine so I'm not sure if that helps but wat do you think??

 

I've always observed the cardinals to be in the top half. A 20 long is pretty much just one level, so I don't think it matters.

 

I rehomed them to keep larger fish... but I had 7 neons with 11 cardinals and about 5 glowlights.

 

and they were all in one big school??
ps. jaysee thank you for the input I will talk to the people at my lfs tomorrow probably and ask them what they think about it. I guess its hard to tell in the aquariums they have there wat region there in because the tanks aren't very tall so ill do some more research before I do anything thanks for the input you guys

 

What about Neons and Rummy nose Tretras, will they school togethera? I have 14 Neons and want some Rummy Nose, if these will school together that's great as I don't want to buy an entire school (Maybe just 3-4). If they won't school together I will have to decide to either buy a whole school or none

 

IME different tetras do not school together, especially not tetras that are vastly different from one another.

 

My Rummy-nosed Tetras usually travel in a huge school whilst the Neon Tetras just spread out. They barely schooled with each other let alone with the Rummies.

 

I think cardinals and neons look funny when kept together. You spend more time looking at the diffences between them than seeing the school as a whole.