Gulf of mexico schooling minnow?

Charley Diesing

Charley Diesing

New member
Well everyone in this hobby desires some schooling fish. In fresh water you have tetras! In salt... You got Cardinal fish? And moody Chromis?

It really doesn't leave you with a lot of options...

So here is my thoughts. I'm going to a beach off the gulf in about a month, and I was wondering could I catch some silver minnows and put them in my reef? I would QT, them etc. Would it work? Is it even possible? Will the minnows even stay small?

Let me know your thoughts,

Charley
 
Most of the schooling fish you find in the shallows are actually juveniles of larger game species. The exception is silversides (aka bay anchovy), but they deal with capture and transport horribly.
 
LobsterOfJustice said:
Most of the schooling fish you find in the shallows are actually juveniles of larger game species. The exception is silversides (aka bay anchovy), but they deal with capture and transport horribly.
Click to expand...

That was definitely a thought I had.

If anyone else has some species that would stay small, please post!

Thanks,

Charley
 
I live in Northeast florida and am an avid fisherman. I do make it to the gulf side quite often to chase game fish. There are several different types of fish you may catch. Mullet, pogies (aka menhaden/ bunker), and mud minnows come to mind first. Mullet will school but grow way to large. Mud minnows will not give you the desired schooling effect. Pogies are delicate, grow large, and would need a lot of swimming room to stay alive because they never stop swiiming. Another species called glass minnows may work but are extremely difficult to keep alive because they are SUPER delicate. If you are casting a net from a beach (rather than areound a marsh) you will proboblyy catch small baby pompano or whiting which are ILLEGAL to keep because they are considered undersized gamefish. All in all most fish you catch around those parts will probobly not work out very well, if they did everyone would already have them in their tanks.
 
To complete the rain on your parade, even fish that school in the wild won't in an aquarium (especially if you're planning to try this in your 40 gallon).
 
Aiolops megastima should be available if your LFS orders through Quality Marine. Most LFS don't order them regularly because they are small and relatively expensive (for a small fish) so the average hobbyist isn't interested in them (similar to Trimma/Eviota gobies).
 
LobsterOfJustice said:
Aiolops megastima should be available if your LFS orders through Quality Marine. Most LFS don't order them regularly because they are small and relatively expensive (for a small fish) so the average hobbyist isn't interested in them (similar to Trimma/Eviota gobies).
Click to expand...

Any idea what the price is normally for a Dwarf Dart?
 
I thought they were reasonably priced, but they are very small. If I could have a group of 10 I'm sure it would be stunning in my little tank. They require lots of time for feeding so beware.

Also you can't really have them with other fish, I had a neon goby that had to be removed due to aggression. They are very passive so they can be the only fish in the water colum. I watched a seahorse eat one of them at the LFS before I saved the other three.
 
LobsterOfJustice said:
Most of the schooling fish you find in the shallows are actually juveniles of larger game species. The exception is silversides (aka bay anchovy), but they deal with capture and transport horribly.
Click to expand...

Technically bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) and silversides (menidia sp.) are different. Silversides are much more tolerant to collection while the bay anchovy will likely die upon capture. The best bet for a saltwater schooling fish in the Gulf would be some type of Killifish. In Texas the longnose killifish and Gulf Killifish would be the best bet. I had some in a 90g and they schooled together without any aggression towards each other.
 
Trimma sp. not a gulf species as far as I know. If you look online you'll find photos of groups in tanks. Their swimming patterns makes them lots of fun to watch.

Trimma-sp-3.jpg



** The photo is not sideways; the fish was swimming head up**
 
FWIW neither tetras nor red spot cardinalfish school. They shoal. Schooling is the behavior of many open water fish where when one turns, they all turn. Shoaling is the tendency to stick together, maybe equally spaced, maybe even mostly pointed in the same direction. But it does not include the tightly synchronized turning that characterizes schooling,

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...
 
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