# Getting Cardinals to School



## punchbuggy (Apr 21, 2010)

I have a school of arround 11 Cardinals in a 15 tall. Its also stocked with 3 long finned danios who swim around like their on drugs, 6 white clouds, 6 pristella tetras. I'm trying to get the cardinals to school, but they just seem so damn relaxed and only come together once in a while, most of the time i only see a 2 groups of 3 and then stragglers everywhere else. 

Any suggestions (probably of what fish to get to scare them together)


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

i notice they loosely school together, normally half go then the other half follow and catch up. When they were in my 10 gallon though, they were all over the place. so could be a horizontal space thing


----------



## VinnyD (Apr 21, 2010)

i do not know....i have cardinals that school with the neons...but yah..the danios scare them sometimes...like u said..danio are active and all over the place usually the top half of the water tho...and the tetras usually take the mid levels...and the shrimps..usually the bottom(but amanos...just like the danios..pretty active)...but yah...i dun have as many cardinals as you..but they still kinda school together(a few like to chill on their own sometimes)


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

also, hows the cover for them? when my plants grew in denser, they schooled much more since they weren't as jumpy. Mine tend to stay low middle btw, more hiding places if needed


----------



## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

i know when i had a school of 50 of them they were always together .....
maybe you need a few more.


----------



## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

you need more. And in a bigger tank, they school better.


----------



## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

charles said:


> you need more. And in a bigger tank, they school better.


I 2nd that.

A 15G doesn't give them enough room to be schooling around anyways.

If you ever invest in a bigger (longer) tank in the future, then consider buying a few more extra cardinals and then you will see them school together.

Buying more is not really necessary. From my experience, I had a school of 15 in my 75G and they were always schooling (lot more swimming space)


----------



## kelly528 (Apr 21, 2010)

I agree... they ARE schooling, you just don't notice it cause its only a 15g tank!


----------



## Clownloachlover (Apr 21, 2010)

easy way to get them to school...put them all on the same bus....sorry I just had to say it!


----------



## Jonney_boy (Apr 28, 2010)

yes they do school but they are a "loose" schoolers.

I have about 50-60 of them in my 75 gal at one point and they will school. Generally they are just really relaxed doing not much of anything in the background with the plants. You need a much bigger tank tho, my school take up over 1/2 of my tank.


----------



## pistolpete (May 2, 2010)

by my count you have 26 fish in a 15 gallon tall. that's just about approaching pet store stocking levels Move them into a 33 gallon and add a couple of pairs of dwarf cichlids, like Kribensis or Keyhole cichlids and you will definitely see schooling.


----------

