Stocking Limitations: Behavior, or Diversity?

[MantisShrimpMan]

I’m currently working with a 20G nano. I want to upgrade but that’s a different story. So for the time being, I’m trying to make the most of my tank.

I’ve been looking at free swimming nano fish- stuff that will add obvious movement and life to the tank, by hanging out in the open water column. The thing is, quite a decent number of them are usually seen in schools. Cardinals, damsels&chromis, dartfish, and more.

A lot of these types of fish are usually added to tanks in small groups of 2-3 in a small tank like mine. Now, I’m a big fan of diversity in a tank- I love seeing a plethora of different fish. But, it would be unrealistic to try to add 10+ fish to a 20G just so I can have multiples of a couple species.

So, how do you balance diversity of stocking with allowing fish to showcase their school behaviors? Would I be wrong to assume that fish like banggai cardinals would suffer on their own and need to be in a group?

it seems like a lot of these fish people insist on adding in multiples, but is there any way to get these various fish and see their fun behaviors while limited by tank size?

 

[Quietman]

I would doubt you can achieve a effective balance between diversity and schooling behavior in a nano tank (even a larger nano tank). The limit is just the number of fish and the room to display behaviors.

I see no impact to health in having single cardinals or chromis in my nano. I've actually heard that without a predator that chromis in schools turn on themselves so everyone ends up with one anyway (at least in smaller tanks). That's why I only got the one chromis. Ends up he's the only fish that survived from original stocking so whatever that's worth.

Gone through 3 bangaii's though (all individual) but last one is healthy and fine and had for months so far. One died after dinos. The other never acted normal nor ate well (that could be lack of schooling I suppose).