Small beautiful schooling fish

[robrich342]

Hi,

I just set up a 29 gal and looking for advise on very small but, very colorful fish that school.

any help ?

 

[chimmike]

a school of fish? not in a 29g. Honestly 3 fish will be about your max.

you could do 3 chromis but chances are likely it'll end up as 1.

 

[robrich342]

This is why I asked for very small fish ... I'm aware of chromis and they do not fit IMO that discription. LOL ... If there are fish that are 1 to 1.5 inches you can put a lot more than three in 29 gallons.

Thanks

 

[owdee]

There are gobies as small as 1-1.5 inches, but they will not school. You will not be able to get a school of fish in a 29 gallon. It is simply impossible. My best suggestion for getting fish that will interact with each other in your tank is to get a mated pair of clowns. Interesting to watch together and of appropriate size and space needs for your 29.

 

[robrich342]

Not impossible... I mean for the best care, the Spotted Cardinalfish should be kept in small schools in suitably sized aquariums of at least 30 gallons I know I can put these in but, I did not know of any other really tiny salt water fish. I have a lot more options with my big tank..

Thanks

 

[davocean]

Actually, there are some tiny fish that I saw in a little tank at the Ecoxotic showroom where we had a reef club meeting.
I can't recall the name of them, maybe someone will chime in, they look kinda like they are FW fish, kinda like black neon's or similar, very small.
They may "schoal" which is the more correct term.

 

[davocean]

Ah, here ya go, forgot I took pics of them, maybe someone can ID these if you like them.

 

[robrich342]

Thanks ! Yes hopefully someone can add value.

potatoe---potato ... " In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling (pronounced /ˈʃoʊlɪŋ/), and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling (pronounced /ˈskuːlɪŋ/).[1] In common usage, the terms are sometimes used rather loosely.[1] About one quarter of fishes shoal all their lives, and about one half of fishes shoal for part of their lives. "[2]

 

[robrich342]

Thanks for the picssssss!!!!!

 

[robrich342]

Those are not bad looking fish.

 

[davocean]

They drew plenty of attention there.
They looked really cool in a group, much better than my pic.
Some cool scape and shrooms, maybe some frogspawn or something would make a cool little tank.
Most tanks aren't big enough I guess for the term schooling to be accurate, but potato potahto...

 

[MCCOOL]

Those look like redspot cardinalfish, Apogon parvulus

Divers den sells groups of 5 regularly.

 

[davocean]

FTS

 

[robrich342]

Thanks for the ID MCCOOL

 

[davocean]

Yeah, thanks Mcool.
Well there ya go, and you can see in the other pic they do stay pretty tightly grouped.

 

[chimmike]

If there are fish that are 1 to 1.5 inches you can put a lot more than three in 29 gallons.

Thanks

I disagree wholeheartedly. I think you're pushing the limits of your filtration as well as the comfort of the fish putting more than 3 in a 29g.

Just because you can get a baby blue tank (1") doesn't mean you should put it in a 29g because it's small. Same idea.

 

[gohstwrighter]

another fish you might thank of is a fresh water moly can be aclomated sloly to salt.and thay school readly

 

[robrich342]

Chimmike.. filtration is the least of my worries. I make 60 gallons of fresh SW per week now for my large tank. I could do what ever is required to keep extremly clean water in the tank. Three or four fish under 1.5 inches will not be impacted by a 29 gal.

 

[hanley0019]

im curious on how many fish you want to put in.

 

[katarina]

I have never kept these and I read that they are very picky eaters but some of the Anthias stay small. I noticed that there is one that stays 2" and that you should keep one male and multiple females. You might want to look into their tank requirements. They are very brightly colored and school.