Schooling fish

[slajiness]

Looking to get about 4-5 small reef safe schooling fish. The more color the better. Any suggestions?

 

[Ambition]

There really aren't any fish that will school in the home aquarium. Generally, shoaling doesn't happen either. You may get close to this effect with red spot glass cardinalfish, some smaller anthias, and maybe chromis. Though be aware that chromis have a reputation for killing each other off until there is just one.

 

[slajiness]

I had 2 firefish that stayed side by side for about 2 weeks then suddenly splt off to each side of the tank.

 

[woodnaquanut]

A lot of schooling behavior has been linked to perceived threat. If there are no threats the schooling behavior will diminish.

 

[Megatrev62]

I have six chromis in a 90 that are always together. No threats in my tank that I'm aware of. They have been together for 4 months.

 

[gone fishin]

I have tried chromis in everything from a 30 to 180 with no luck. I put 9 in my 180 and have 2 left. I may be way off base on this so tak it FWIW. I don't think in our home tanks we can recreate the schooling or shoaling we see in the wild. We just do not have the room or the "personal space" needed to recreate it. just my 2 cents.

 

[JohnniG]

My anthias school

 

[o2manyfish]

Firefish in groups of 5-6 will stay together.

Bar Gobies in groups of 4-5 will stay together.

Clowns are usually kept pairs. But if you get 4-5 perculas will usually stay together.

My Anthias group is up to 8 and they are in either one or two groups in the tank at any given time.

Dave B

 

[lhm nole]

I have 3 blue eye cardinals and they always stay together thinking about adding 5 more

 

[Good gREEF]

If you want color I would suggest blue reef chromis they are royal
Blue with black margins on the fins or bartlets anthias they are half yellow and half purple
Plus check out helfrichi fire fish they also have a schooling habit
And are a mixture multi pastel colors look very nice you won't be disappointed
With any one of these suggestions I have owned all the three at one time or another
Can't go wrong with any of them but I would by all just in case

 

[scolley]

Red Spot Cardinalfish shoal really nicely. But for many, they gradually disappear one by one. Others can keep them, and the difference between what leads to success vs. eventual failure is unknown. My LFS can't even keep them without them aforementioned gradual loss.

But you might get lucky. They look awesome in groups of 10 or more.

 

[jhawkor]

I really wish Chromis wouldn't kill each other one by one. I started with a group of seven. Now only one remains.

 

[Mr.Saltz]

+1 on Anthias. They look nice when they do stay together. If you had close to a 125g you could try these. They have a little color, but love the shape.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+25+3111&pcatid=3111

Check out youtube for videos of them. There are a lot of vids of them in the wild as well as a few aquarium vids.