Schooling

[marinereef28]

has anyone kept any schooling fish that aren't chromis or anthias???

 

[plateboy3293]

Cardinalfish

Clownfish kinda school I guess?

 

[ScubaDiver93]

Heniochis, my favorite!

 

[twon8]

chromis wont' school except in the largest of aquariums

 

[tom3201]

I have six chromis in a 30 cube and they are always swimming together

 

[snorvich]

Yes, they are shoaling not schooling.

 

[Reeftanks6]

I have never kept any schooling fish but here are some that i have seen school.

Tangs
Clowns

 

[snorvich]

Shoaling. Neither of these fish school.

 

[Reeftanks6]

I have seen them school in very large groups.

 

[snorvich]

Well clown fish do not school or shoal. In the wild they will group with a male and female sexually differentiated pair and 3 to 6 sexually undifferentiated individuals around an anemone. By the way, this is called association; the anemone hosts clown fish, the clown fish associate with the anemone.

Tangs (some) will aggregate in a shoal but will not "school" which is an aligned movement with all individuals facing the same direction. Normally schooling requires dithering behavior.

 

[Reeftanks6]

OK my mistake sorry about that.

 

[snorvich]

No problem. Noone knows everything which is why we all read this board. I learn something new almost every day.

 

[silvers]

double post

 

[silvers]

Have you seen tangs in the wild, I know for shure atlantic tangs school I have seen it many times diving in the Keys .Hundreds if not thousands in a school.

 

[ggk1988]

what is the difference between schooling and shoaling?

 

[thor32766]

Tangs (some) will aggregate in a shoal but will not "school" which is an aligned movement with all individuals facing the same direction. Normally schooling requires dithering behavior.

courtesy of snorvich in his above post.

 

[flameangel88]

May be this article can clear it up a bit:

http://www.thatfishshop.com/reference/shoal.htm

 

[snorvich]

Some butterfly fish will also shoal although none will school. Some of the fish that I have seen school are: barracuda, jacks, silver sides but schooling behavior in normal aquaria is not going to happen for a variety of reasons. Some of the fish I have seen shoal in an aquarium are some varieties of cardinal fish, yellow zoster butterfly, and some chromis and some anthias. I have heard that some tangs will shoal but have no personal experience observing this in aquaria. I have seen this in the wild many times but it depends on the species.

 

[Untamed12]

I very much want to purchase a number of fish that will "school" in my 400.

I've NOT purchased the traditional Chromis or Anthias because my observation is that they "shoal"...loosely at best.

I've tried to obtain Pygmy Sweepers (as seen at the Georgia Aquarium), but they aren't generally available. Aside from their schooling behaviour, they aren't particularly attractive, I suppose)

So....has anyone found another fish that will truly "School" in a tight formation?...and stays small so that you can have 15 or 20 of them? (and maybe be in decent supply so that you can replace the one's that stray from the school and get eaten...)

 

[BMW///M3]

I would say it's a safe bet this is "schooling" They are all facing the same direction, and ALWAYS do....