RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
interesting! What size tank do you have?
Favorite schooling fish
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The schooling fish available in the hobby are relatively few and far between, mainly because many of them aren't terribly pretty. I did a lot of research on this (but no experience with any of these). What I've heard:
1. chromis or other damsels (including clownfish) - their nature is to school when they're small, but when they get to sexual maturity they establish territories and pair off. In the wild, they may or may not pick their own section of coral and still school part time, but in the confines of an aquarium they won't have enough territory and will kill each other. Thus the general story I've heard is that they're fine when small for like a year or so and then they pick each other off until only 1-2 are still around.
But this is not everyone's story; some folks have been luckier, not all chromis and damsels are alike, and based on the clownfish harem experience, if someone really wanted to try this, I'd recommend getting an a group of chrysipera clownfish from ORA, all from the same clutch (with a dominance hierarchy established) and put them in a large tank (say, 11 fish in at least a 48x16x21 75g) with lots of (fake or real) branching corals and places to hide.
2. firefish - won't do it, at least long term in aquarium conditions
3. cardinals - small banggai will; however they also pair off. Same goes for PJ cardinals. THAT SAID, Banggais will reportedly school with blue streak cardinals, who supposedly will school. So if you had a school of say 5-7 blue streaks and a pair of banggais they supposedly will permanently school together.
4. all kinds of relatively obscure cardinals and gobies of the genus Ostorinchus (school in either seagrass lagoons and/or cave areas), gobies of the genus Eviota (school among real or fake coral heads, branching SPS, and/or caves), or Coryphopterus (school in real or fake branching SPS, available sometimes aquacultured or sustainably collected in the USA by collectors with substantial investment in coral reef protection)
if one is really looking for schooling fish, I'd contact Kara or Phillip of KPaquatics and ask them if they know of any good schooling fish candidates that people don't think about (since they know fish very well, including things that aren't commonly in the market), and while you're at it if they could catch most/all of a school for you.
1. chromis or other damsels (including clownfish) - their nature is to school when they're small, but when they get to sexual maturity they establish territories and pair off. In the wild, they may or may not pick their own section of coral and still school part time, but in the confines of an aquarium they won't have enough territory and will kill each other. Thus the general story I've heard is that they're fine when small for like a year or so and then they pick each other off until only 1-2 are still around.
But this is not everyone's story; some folks have been luckier, not all chromis and damsels are alike, and based on the clownfish harem experience, if someone really wanted to try this, I'd recommend getting an a group of chrysipera clownfish from ORA, all from the same clutch (with a dominance hierarchy established) and put them in a large tank (say, 11 fish in at least a 48x16x21 75g) with lots of (fake or real) branching corals and places to hide.
2. firefish - won't do it, at least long term in aquarium conditions
3. cardinals - small banggai will; however they also pair off. Same goes for PJ cardinals. THAT SAID, Banggais will reportedly school with blue streak cardinals, who supposedly will school. So if you had a school of say 5-7 blue streaks and a pair of banggais they supposedly will permanently school together.
4. all kinds of relatively obscure cardinals and gobies of the genus Ostorinchus (school in either seagrass lagoons and/or cave areas), gobies of the genus Eviota (school among real or fake coral heads, branching SPS, and/or caves), or Coryphopterus (school in real or fake branching SPS, available sometimes aquacultured or sustainably collected in the USA by collectors with substantial investment in coral reef protection)
if one is really looking for schooling fish, I'd contact Kara or Phillip of KPaquatics and ask them if they know of any good schooling fish candidates that people don't think about (since they know fish very well, including things that aren't commonly in the market), and while you're at it if they could catch most/all of a school for you.
RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
135... Sorry what's the unit of measure?
biecacka
Valuable Member
I once tried 10 chromis and They eventually picked each other off until only 2 remained. I read if you feed heavy it helps, I fed 6 times a day. Maybe that wasn’t enough...most fish in the wild school for safety as it makes it harder for predators to get them. With no real predators in our tanks, there is less need for this.
corey
corey
dennis romano
Valuable Member
Many years ago, I saw a 125 with a half dozen Monos. The owner bought them when they were small and acclimated them to his marine tank. After a year, they were about seven inches tall and bright yellow and black. There was fighting but no death. It looked like a school of permit.
2Sunny
Active Member
If I remember correctly I started with 15 or more chromis. I got 2-3 years out of my chromis school until one male got WAY bigger than the rest and slowly reduced the group to 5, but then I had 5 until just last week when the large male died. His mate died about a month ago. Now I have 3. I have had very good success keeping 7 or more Squamis by adding smaller females 2 or 3 at a time after the initial 3 with one male and 2 females, but they don't really school all that much. I did have 7 Pajama Cardinals that were a tight school for about 5 years, but I tried to duplicate that last week and my Banggai Cardinal (who lost her partner about 6 months ago) went berserk and chased them down incessantly until I took the poor Pajama Cardinals out and moved them to my sump.
However, one of the managers at House of Fins in Greenwich keeps a spectacular display tank up front. I think its about 100 gallons or so something like 3 feet long 24 inches tall and 18 inches wide, and he has a "real" school in the tank of about 30 Longspine Cardinals. They school really tightly and its very cool. I had never heard of using Longspines, but it makes sense given the success using other Cardinals.
Bottom line schools don't last all that long but are possible with a large group of juveniles of either Chromis or Cardinals.
However, one of the managers at House of Fins in Greenwich keeps a spectacular display tank up front. I think its about 100 gallons or so something like 3 feet long 24 inches tall and 18 inches wide, and he has a "real" school in the tank of about 30 Longspine Cardinals. They school really tightly and its very cool. I had never heard of using Longspines, but it makes sense given the success using other Cardinals.
Bottom line schools don't last all that long but are possible with a large group of juveniles of either Chromis or Cardinals.
BackToTheReef
Valuable Member
Doesn't proaquatix have some captive raised fish that would fall into this? (Can't remember the name but I was flipping through their site yesterday)
Longspine Cardinals, by far the best IME, if you have an exceptionally large tank and can find them Fusiliers work as well. Most everything else ends up picking each other off.
RobB'z Reef
2500 Club Member
sounds like a cool design, never seen a cube that big before.
Fish dont really school in an aquarium. At least I've never seen it. I've tried small groups several times and it never worked out. Unless you have an extremely large tank, I think the best you can hope for is a trio. I have a trio of Pajama Cardinals someone gave me that probably started out as a much larger group. It's pretty cool, but one of them is still like a 3rd wheel. The other 2 tolerate its presence, but they don't really hang out together.
C. Eymann
2500 Club Member
To all that are failing with green chromis-
keep in odd numbers and feed small amounts 3-4× a day at least! if you can't commit to feeding at least 3x a day everyday, you will end up with one chromis eventually/ dont buy them.
The feeding frequency is the key to long term success with a group of chromis.
Just my .02
keep in odd numbers and feed small amounts 3-4× a day at least! if you can't commit to feeding at least 3x a day everyday, you will end up with one chromis eventually/ dont buy them.
The feeding frequency is the key to long term success with a group of chromis.
Just my .02
lavoisier
Valuable Member
I have a larger tank (600g DT) and the fish in my tank don't school but they do shoal. I started with 10 blue green chromis and 2 years later have 5. My lyretail anthias have done better--only lost 2. 5 Banggai cardinals became 2. I just added a group of 6 blue reef chromis...I really like them.
Bfragale
Valuable Member
I have had to keep adding chromis. Started with 6 down to 2, added 3, back down to two, last time I added 5- and (knock on wood) all 7 have been ok and not gone missing in last 6 months. They school but one is bigger then the rest and he’s a bit of a bully but they seem to school so far.
But when the do die, it’s a snack for the nems lol
gray808
Active Member
Several years ago, I worked at the Google campus in Kirkland, WA. In the dining area they had a huge, tall tank viewable on 3 sides, that helped me become interested in reef tanks.
In the main lobby, they had a tank that was about 2' across, at least 20' long, and perhaps 3 1/2' tall. It had some tall, thin artificial (I assume) grass. The inhabitants were some sort of fish about the size of a large sand dollar, kind of tang-shaped, and mirror-silver. They had a group of 20-30 of them, and they would school back and forth, flashing and group-mind changes of course, it was very, very impressive.
The only picture I can find only shows a small corner of it:
I think that would be the best example of a schooling tank I've ever seen, but it's HUGE and super-specialized.
--Gray
In the main lobby, they had a tank that was about 2' across, at least 20' long, and perhaps 3 1/2' tall. It had some tall, thin artificial (I assume) grass. The inhabitants were some sort of fish about the size of a large sand dollar, kind of tang-shaped, and mirror-silver. They had a group of 20-30 of them, and they would school back and forth, flashing and group-mind changes of course, it was very, very impressive.
The only picture I can find only shows a small corner of it:
I think that would be the best example of a schooling tank I've ever seen, but it's HUGE and super-specialized.
--Gray
