# School of Fish



## SombraroParty (Nov 21, 2010)

Ive been browsing the forums but haven't found anything about schooling. I'm about to buy a 75-125gallon tank and make a swarm of tetras(or anything) and maybe 1 or 2 predators. possibly a Betta, convict, or Oscar. I'm looking for a fish that will ball up in a school and can eat some plants that I grow in the aquarium. 

My goal is to have a closed off ecosystem where the top predators rule and the school will eat (plants), reproduce, and keep the cycle going. I plan to seal off the tank and begin research on how long i can keep a closed ecosystem going. I want to add as little as possible to the tank in terms of food/new water, and was looking for a few tips or fish to try out.

I would really appreciate any advice.


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

First you'll never get the tetras to keep up with something like an oscars appetite. If you get something going well as far as establishing the tank then introduce a small predator type fish you might get it to work.. but you'll have to gt the tank established very well with your plants and things like guppies. Your still going to end up having to fed the guppies though. I dont personally know of any fish that you could start in a tank that would just eat plant life. nor do i know ofa small enough predator fish for what your thinking of doing


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

Guppies would be the only thing I can think of that would reproduce at the rate you want, and guppies will not school. Guppies scatter and hide, being sort of the bunnies of the underwater forest. Plus if you wanted guppies to keep up the reproduction at the rate you wanted you'd need to keep them fed. A clean looking observation tank is not producing at its potential & wouldn't have a big enough base for its food pyramid (you always need a much bigger number of eaten to support the eaters, so if you want algae to be the base of your pyramid, you need a freakload of algae.) A tank that was overrun with green water with daphnia going in it might work for awhile, until the guppies got all the daphnia, but you wouldn't see much of anything. If you were willing to supplement the base by feeding the guppies you could probably get closer to what you wanted, but instead of an oscar, think angelfish or something like that, something smaller & less aggressive.


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## mfgann (Oct 21, 2010)

Hmm... perhaps instead of a schooling fish you could go with some Cherry Shrimp, which will eat algae and scraps. Perhaps add some snails instead of, or in addition to the shrimp. Either will breed pretty readily. Then you would have to find a fish that would go after baby shrimp, but not full grown shrimp.. Most fish would do this. I think you would want to establish a large colony of shrimp before adding anything else. I'm not sure if the shrimp could survive with no food added though. They will find some food, but enough to support a large colony? I don't know. Those are my thoughts, and they're worth what you paid for them. 

Good luck.


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## SombraroParty (Nov 21, 2010)

After reading your reply's and doing some more research it seems that you all are right. I really wanted an Oscar or convict so what I may do is get a 25gal and a 75gal and keep the Oscar alone in the 25gal and just plop him in when its time to feed. or construct some sort of tunnel/door system where I can open/close it when I want him to go into the bigger tank. Itll be hard to get him out of the big tank though so I need to think about that. Maybe just net him? 

all opinions are welcome don't be shy to shoot me down, criticism is really what I'm looking for


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## Mr_Pat (Apr 13, 2010)

Honestly id say get your big tank and set it up. and just go once a week and buy feeder guppies / rosies. Netting your oscar when you want to feed it will just stress the fish out.


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