suggestions needed for schooling fish

[reeferaddiction]

as the subj says i would like your input on what kind of small schooling fish i can add to my 72 reef.currently i have a small blue hippo 2" (will be going to big tank soon so no tang police please)jk, a maroon clown, 5 bl grn chromis, lyrtail anth, mandarin, and a black combtooth blenny. i want some smaller colorful fish, i was thinking about a school of purple firefish but want to know what other options are out there i may not have thought about. thanks guys

 

[tcmfish]

The firefish will windle themselves down to a pair or a lone individual.

How bout some threadfin cardinal fish?

 

[tigerarmy40]

get your anthias a few females, or if you laredy have a female then add a male and two more females

 

[reeferaddiction]

if i decided to do the anthias would there be any aggression issues with the exsisting female anthias? i would be introducing 2 more females for a total of 3 and then 1 male. still just a idea and i am a bit concerned abourt the tank being too small for a school of anthias. Has anyone had any experience with a school of firefish? the reason i ask is because i got the idea from seeing a pic of a local's tank that has a school of helfrichi firefish and at 170.00 a pop i dont think he would risk it. keep the ideas coming guys and thanks for your input so far!

 

[tcmfish]

The firefish as I said before will kill each other. I have worked in a LFS and they stuck around for a while and they would windle the group down to a pair that would share a bolt hole. Plus from reading people's experiences trying to breed helfrichi firefish they have had a hard time with aggression also.

With the anthias don't buy a male. The one you have is probably turning into a male. Try and get some females if you want four then just get females the most dominant one will change sex to be a male.

 

[Steven1015]

green chromis dont look half bad and there really cheap to.

 

[reeferaddiction]

ok cool i didnt realize that the one i have will turn, makes sense since it is established and will be the dominant one. Do you think tank size is a issue? my aquascaping is very open though.

tcmfish- i didnt mean my last post to sound as if i was second guessing you as now that i read it again it seems that way. i was more wondering if they would kill each other why someone would waste all of that money, not to mention the guy who has them is a very experienced aquarist.

***** I am the proud new owner of a bluespot jawfish, found him on my lunch break at a price i couldnt pass up in a million years. so please take the new addition into consideration when making any recomendations. thanks guys

 

[reeferaddiction]

steven i already have a school of 5 chromis

 

[tcmfish]

Depending on the size of the tank he may be able to get away with it or he just purchased them, but the way you are describing them as a school doesn't lend to the idea of them pairing off and staying at different areas of the tank, so it leads me to believe he just purchased them or he is getting lucky (there are always exceptions).

If you want a school of firefish tho... the easiest species (most peaceful towards there own kind) would probably be the cheaper red ones.

The anthias should be fine in your tank but I doubt they will school. They will stay close. In the wild the sheer numbers of them look as if they are schooling but most of the time a male has a few females close by and they stay a few inches apart.

Also on that jawfish, it seems they prefer cooler waters so you may want to drop the temp a few degrees if you feel its possible with your inhabitants. Most people don't have long term success with them (including me) and I feel its due to water temperature. They live on the west coast of mexico in deep water.

Have you checked out the threadfin cardinals at all?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/totm/index.php

 

[danfrith]

Shoaling fish*

 

[reeferaddiction]

thanks for your contribution dan