Schooling reef safe fish

[power boat jim]

I have a 125 gallon reef tank that has a blue damsel, flame angel, yellow tang and a royal gramma. I want to add some sort of schooling type fish with good color that are reef safe dont jump and will get along with the current inhabitants. The tank is mostly sps. Any ideas/suggestions on what would work under these conditions? I have never had many fish since I have concentrated mostly on coral, so fish are not my strong suit. Anny help would be appreciated.

 

[M.Doshier]

Blue or Green Chromis's

 

[power boat jim]

Is there a certain number of them that works best?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Blue Green Chromis are not a good choice for schooling fishes. Do a search.
Any number of Chromis will whittle each other down to two or three survivors. They will then form a spawning pair or trio.
Certain Cardinalfish species are among the best choice for a schooling fish in home aquaria.

 

[steveo32]

you could always do a harem of anthias

 

[NexDog]

I agree. Get Bartlett or Lytails Anthias. They are pretty hardy and usually a harem will have one dominant male and teh rest females. I just got 6 Lyretails (currently in QT) and they are so beautiful that I wish I had gotten 10. They school when they feel threatened otherwise they hang out in groups of 2 or 3.

 

[stykthyn]

firefish, but they just kind of hangout, dont swim much

 

[mzeinstr]

neon gobies are really cool.

i have 4 small (a little over 1 inch) tank raised percs that swim as a school, i assume they will pair up as they get older but they stick together right now. i paid $10 for each from premium aquatics, very healthy and active, i've had them for about 1 month now. with a tank you size they could pair up later on and have plenty of room. and they are really cool and friendly, always out and visible, not hiding in the rocks.

marti

 

[JmLee]

chormis's shoal not school.

 

[jbrown11352]

Green Chromis will do fine in odd numbers. They are my first choice as I am going with 9 in my 120.

 

[sunfishh]

How about threadfin cardinals?

 

[NexDog]

Appear to school well but they aren't very common really. I think they are pretty boring and they are super expensive. A school/shoal will set you back quite a bit.

 

[moonpod]

with the chromis, you need "something" in the tank that makes them feel threatened but won't actually take 'em out. A mean angel or something along that lines. It'll keep 'em shoaling for "security" and keeps 'em from beating on each other. For whatever reason if they don't have that they eventually fall back to typical "damsel" behavior and slowly beat on each other til there's only a small group of survivors. My experience anyways. 9 chromis that "shoal" 6 mos and counting.

 

[Monkeyfish]

How about blue reef chromis http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm? ?pCatId=113. I've heard that they are less likley to "whittle" than the blue-greens, but haven't read anything to support that.

 

[hmott]

I asked this question not long ago.. for as many people as seem to want to do this the info on doing it is amazingly hard to find or doesn't exist.

the poor mans moorish idol I believe will actually school. I think almost all the cardnal fish will. The chromis will not once they get mature they kill each other seems to be the standard answer. I wish I knew more myself I would love a big school of something. I believe the firefish do not school and adults kill each other off like chromis. Clowns also won't school as adults or even mature juvies.

 

[Monkeyfish]

Pilot fish school, but they get huge!

 

[jbrown11352]

Absolutely not true. The chromis will school as adults and will not kill each other off as long as they have a bigger more aggresive fish to put them in check. I have seen this personally and heard it on several occasions.

 

[power boat jim]

jbrown-By a "more aggressive fish" do you mean a flame angel, blue damsel or yellow tang?

 

[jbrown11352]

Damsels will not work, they are to small in my opinion. A larger aggresive angel would be perfect.

 

[power boat jim]

I now have some "avenues" to explore, I will look at cardinal fish, anthias and chromis before I decide. If anyone has anymore suggestions please say so. I appreciate all the opinions/suggestions to this point.