Best Schooling fish for 72G tank

[guruduck]

I have a FOWLR 72g and 20g sump. Want to restock after a big loss some time ago.

Considering the have a school of fish to swim around. I know the size of tank is small, so I will consider small fish only.

What is the best small size schooling fish?
How many should I get?
How to keep them in a school? Circular water movement? wave maker?

thanks
Guruduck

 

[Dragon moray ki]

Ummmmm let's see I would do a group of zebra bared dart fish they r awesome

 

[AlexS95]

I would go with a trio of Anthias.

 

[Dragon moray ki]

Anthias those r cool to good call alexs95

 

[clowntriggerfis]

I have green reef chromises and they are cool and always school

 

[alprazo]

In the purist sense, those are all shoaling fish. Schooling fish in the aquarium is harder to do. Probably the easiest to acquire is the atlantic silverside depending where you live. I personally like have they turn, dart, and dodge in unison but the fish themselves are rather drab. 72 gal may be too small.

 

[Monkeyfish]

Cardinals will group together.
Chromis have a tendency to kill each other off over time; they only school as juveniles.
Anthias are hit or miss as they do not always stay in a group and sometimes the females will change to males and then fight.

 

[jonathansruelas]

i would go with the cardinals

 

[Higgy2010]

I have a trio of shoaling ignitus anthias and a trio of green chromis (and a blue reef chromis) in my 90G. Chromis is the obvious choice, due to its low price, but I'd recommend the anthias.

 

[youngspecialist]

a dozen chromises look cool, bicolor chromises are spectacular in larger numbers

 

[Jasanden]

A group of thread fin cardinals look very cool with there blue eyes .

 

[MrTuskfish]

This question comes up a lot; and ,IMO, most people are disappointed. I guess it depends on your definition of "schooling". Even very large home tanks seldom have "schooling" fish. Two fish, at opposite ends of your tank, will still be in the same "school". Just my opinion, buts most so-called "schooling" SW fish are really boring; given the great fish that you could have. but its your tank, get what you like.

 

[TruespeedEM1]

I have four maldives lyretails (1 male and 3 female) in a 120g. I knew they wouldnt exactly school, but they really dont even hang out with each other. Maybe two females will be seen together is pretty much the most common thing, and the male "bulleting" towards the females.

Awesome looking fish, but not what I was anticipating

 

[MrTuskfish]

I have four maldives lyretails (1 male and 3 female) in a 120g. I knew they wouldnt exactly school, but they really dont even hang out with each other. Maybe two females will be seen together is pretty much the most common thing, and the male "bulleting" towards the females.

Awesome looking fish, but not what I was anticipating

Yeah, on the reef, a harem of Anthias will hang out together, but sure take up more space than any home tank. I think some people expect to find SW fish that will school like frightened FW tetras. That just doesn't happen, IMO & IME.