schooling fish

hi its me again. i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for small schooling fish? i think a nice school would be pretty in my aquarium. it is a 55 gal., the water is really alkaline and hard, ive got alot of plants too. i once tried a school of 8 tiger barbs, i knew tiger barbs were fin nippers but i thought if they were in a school they would be nice, but they messed with my gouramis and my gouramis picked them off one by one. kind of scary. anyway, any suggestions would be nice, my gouramis tend to get annoyed at fast moving fish though.

Gouramis, I'm told, tend to stay near the top of the aquarium, so schooling fish that stay toward the middle or bottom shouldn't bother them. Neons and cardinals will school, but they're somewhat delicate and can be expensive. White cloud mountain minnows are hearty, attractive, non aggressive schooling fish so long as you have at least six or eight of them. They have a shiny gold stripe that reflects light when they travel in a shoal and would make a nice contrast with the gouramis. White clouds will also spawn if you give a pair their own aquarium of five or ten gallons.

I also have hard water with a high pH. Both situations can be helped a little by decorating with Malaysian driftwood and adding Indian almond leaf. Most aquarium fish can acclimate to hard water, so extreme measures are usually not necessary to correct the condition.

i have two cloud minnows (that i got from someone) but they always are at the top of the tank but they are cool looking though

my gouramis are always swimming at the bottom among the leaves of the plants, and only go to the surface for food or air. white clouds are cool, but dont they get sick in tropical tanks? or maybe im wrong. where do you get indian almond leaf and malasian driftwood? they seem like a more natural alternative to chemicals, but they sound exotic. are they expensive?

Regular white cloud mountain minnows prefer cooler water, but they do just fine and will even spawn in common aquarium water. The long fin white clouds are, I'm told, more sensitive to warm temperatures.

For Animefan92: If white clouds are swimming near the top of the aquarium, they may be short on oxygen. That means it's probably time to do a partial water change and to make sure the aquarium has no measurable ammonia. White clouds also prefer to be in a group.

About gouramis: Unless they're one of the really big or aggressive varities they should do fine with white clouds. Since gouramis are bubble nest builders, they will try to control territories at the top of the aquarium when they are thinking about spawning. When white clouds spawn they scatter eggs near the bottom of the tank, so territorial disputes between them and gouramis are rare.

Most of the on line aquarium supply places sell Malaysian driftwood. Let me know if you need names. Each piece of driftwood is unique, since it's from a real tree and not a resin mold. Driftwood has some very interesting shapes, so it makes an ideal aquarium decoration. I even bought some Malaysian driftwood from PETCO on line. All suppliers don't always have the stuff, but it's usually available somewhere. Aquabid.com is a good source for driftwood as well as Indian almond leaves. A supplier called Aquatic Magic advertises on Ebay, and they have the leaves as well as java ferns and other plants that will grow on driftwood. The Indian almond leaves don't make good decorations, but they can be hidden.