Small schooling fish , why do we see so few?

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damsels etc are great and tangs etc .. but to me I always think it is goofy to have such large fish in medium sized tanks . Is there a reason why I never see fish like these in lfs's or for sale online?

I love the look of a small tank looking gigantic with the selection of fish.

personally a 6 inch tang which is the size of most colony's if not bigger is just odd to me.

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What are they? I was going to post earlier about what other choices there are for small schooling fish. I have my chromis pack, and a couple small talbot damsels..I'm redoing my tank and removing the pygmy angels, wrasses and other things and going small, for their sake, and I love watching schooling behavior.

thx!
 
I have no idea what they are =/ .. Those are pics from yasuhiro's tank I think.

Wish I did know what they were , would pull every fish out of my tank besides the aussie linn wrasse and put about 12 of those lil guys in.
 
Are they freshwater mollies that have been salt acclimated? I know people do that. I have freshwater tanks but I've never even glanced at mollies to know what they look like. Neon tetra's would be cool too if they would acclimate.
 
They are both types of Cardinal fishes it really is ashame tht mor eof these small schooling cardinals arent imported they are extremly abundant on the reefs easy to catch and nonaggressive yet we hardly ever see them.
 
I've got orange striped cardinals on order, but, this vendor keeps sending TINY little fish (just got my first batch of green striped gobies from them last week; they had to go in a new 'baby' tank they were so small). So, I'm curious about the others on order now, but the orange striped seem like they'll be good schoolers. Where did you get the ones in the top pic, and what type are they exactly?

thx!
 
The reason you don't see them, is because most people would rather buy 10 different fish, than 10 of the same.

Alone thse fish are not very appealing, and people would not buy them.

Personally, I agree, I would love to get schools of the many small fish on the reefs, unfotunalty we are in the minority of the buying public!
 
I am also looking for a small scooling fish, something that stays under 2 inches. Any ideas what and where I can find something like this?
 
people are nuts then, I think they are beautiful lil guys ..

Heh ya they do look like lil danio's? (sp) or tetra's etc .. But I kind of like that . My 90 has a few fairly expensive fish but personally I am sick of dishing out 200-300 a fish just because it looks "pretty" .. I had purchased a aussie linn wrasse and all it does is hide untill its feeding time. Its like dropping a few hundred behind a rock and hopefully you might see ben's or the queens face.


I am going to start searching for the cardinal fish as stated and hopefully i can weed through the bangai and pajama card threads/webpages heh.
 
I really enjoy my `Masked Gobies'. Not super exotic - don't fully school - but hang out in pairs, are quite active, and cute.

Doesn't hurt that I saw them diving ... but along with red-headed gobies ... among my favorites.

People are always suprised at my tank, as I've got 3 masked gobies, 1 clown goby ... only 3 larger fish [sunburst anthias, midas blenny, flasher wrasse].
Frankly, Tangs/Angels are just so common, so large [and demanding] ... I just don't get their overwhelming popularity.
 
so those schooling gobies/ cardinals are from japan right? what is keeping people from importing them overÃ"šÃ‚©Ã"šÃ‚©?? i want some too!
 
Those fish look like maybe they are "Apogon quadrisquamatus Longley 1934, Sawcheek Cardinalfish. Western Pacific; Florida to Venezuela. To 7 cm. in length. Bonaire pic at night" (Wetwebmedia). Just from looking at the pictures.

I like my blue green chromis. They are very peaceful (they are still young though) and very colorful and extremely cheap!!! Nothing like spending 37 dollars each for five Bartlet's anthias and having one jump and two get sick and die!!!! (I still have two and they are doing great! I love them.)
 
GoFishJoel said:
Those fish look like maybe they are "Apogon quadrisquamatus Longley 1934, Sawcheek Cardinalfish. Western Pacific; Florida to Venezuela. To 7 cm. in length. Bonaire pic at night" (Wetwebmedia). Just from looking at the pictures.

I like my blue green chromis. They are very peaceful (they are still young though) and very colorful and extremely cheap!!! Nothing like spending 37 dollars each for five Bartlet's anthias and having one jump and two get sick and die!!!! (I still have two and they are doing great! I love them.)
Click to expand...
I hear that noise Gofish.
I am passing on the fairy wrasses.
Fish school for protection.It's hard to mimic in a square box.
WhenI dove in hawaii there was a school of about ten different species of fish.So awesome.
Their must have been a predator in the area.
 
Triggerman,
The worst noise resulted when I accidentally closed the door on the automatic feeder before leaving for Hawaii. OUCH!!! My support person did not notice for several days, the 3rd Bartletââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s and three I think Threadfinââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s all died. They were the skinny ones when and I left and the missing ones when I returned.
Anyway, sorry for the diversion from the main topic.
 
That second pic looks like a small coral goby of the genus Coryphopterus, one of the LFS in my area had them a while back. Pretty cute, but they were charging $25 ea.

Whoops ... upon further inspection I was thinking of the masked goby lol ... not enough caffeine today ;)
 
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they do look like fw tetras of some sort. very cute though. i wish they'd get them in around here. i'd prefer them to some of the fish i've seen lately.
 
Hi , I have decided to bump this back up .. As I have been searching for quite some time and still no answers..
 
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