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They have never really done this before but today I noticed my black neons schooling with my cardinals? Is this unusual?

How many of each species do you have? Tetras generally only school with other species if they are uncomfortable.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

How many of each do you have & what are the tank mates & the tank size?.


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I had a school of 7 Neons- I then bought the last 3 Black neons from an LFS. They also schooled together.



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the fish are of the same general shape, so it's not unusual for them to school with each other.

I have 5 of each but they stopped doing it now. Strange. :%):%)

I would not consider this to be unusual behaviour. Not only do Cardinals and Black Neons share a similar body shape, they share a similar layout of colours, even though the actual colours (Blue/Red for the Cardinals, Black/White for the Black neons) differ. They are both species whose colour scheme consists of two principal colour regions divided horizontally, so that the upper region forms a very visible stripe. Even if there are, say, two dozen of each species in an aquarium (which would easily be enough to keep them both happy) chances are that if they share their aquarium with a larger and potentially predatory looking fish, even those substantial schools of the two species will intermingle on the basis of the 'safety in numbers' paradigm. Put in something like a half-grown Pearl Gourami and the schooling will be pretty tight! Even though the Pearl Gourami will have long since learned that waiting for the owner to add food to the aquarium is a LOT easier a lifestyle than snacking on smaller fish, the Tetras won't take any chances, even though it's unlikely that a Pearl Gourami would attack full-grown Cardinals and Black Neons. After all, Cardinals and Black Neons encounter some fairly interesting predators in the wild, including assorted Cichlids whose body shapes won't be markedly different from a Pearl Gourami's, and the same instinct that causes them to school tightly in the wild in the presence of Cichlids will come into play in an aquarium with a Pearl Gourami. of course, all of this becomes somewhat academic if you make the mistake of putting in a six-inch Oscar, but then only a fool would surely drop in an Oscar with small Tetras!

I would hazard a guess that if experiments were performed along these lines, the same mixed shoaling would take place among Lemons/Rosies/Black Phantoms, because all of these species possess a similar body shape and distribution of high-contrast markings on the dorsal and anal fins (which all three species use for signalling). Other Tetra combinations spring to mind too such as Ornate/Bleeding Heart, for example. Indeed, in the case of Rosies and Black Phantoms, I saw this phenomenon in action at my LFS earlier today when buying my new Cardinals and Otocinclus - the Rosies and Black Phantoms were in the same aquarium (my LFS seems to like making life hard for himself ) and they were sharing their aquarium with two large male Silver Mollies. The Tetras crowded together in that aquarium without separating into species-specific shoals, on the basis that being amongst lots of lookalikes was the safest way of not triggering any unwelcome attentions from the large male Mollies (even though the Mollies were more interested in biting chunks off an algal mat at the back of the aquarium!).

Even if there are no larger fishes to trigger the 'safety in numbers' paradigm among the Tetras, chances are they will still exhibit this kind of shoaling on occasions.

If you want confusion to truly reign in an aquarium, then put in 12 each of Lemons, Rosies, Black Phantoms and Pristellas! Chances are you'd observe the same confusion if you put together 12 each of Zebra Danio, Pearl Danio and Rasbora borapetensis in the same aquarium ... with the added 'facial tic' effect of the fishes' incessant darting from point A to point B!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have schools of 8 of cardinal and black neons and they all school together. I wouldnt worry about it. If increasing the number of the black neons encourages them to stop schooling all together then if you want you could do that. Its nothing to spend to much energy worrying over since the two species have a lot in common. Good luck.