Good schooling fish for 55 gallon

[CLYRIC]

Hi, I want to add a schooling fish (3 fish of the same species) into my tank. What schooling fish would be the most friendly/peaceful fish to be added?
I heard that blue green chromis are good, but they tend to kill each other off, same with damsels. Any recommendations?

 

[Nemolover12]

I would recommend either a bangaii or pajama cardinal. They are peaceful and very pretty. You could also get some fire fish. And if you are looking for something bigger you could try some anthias.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Scissortail dartfish do better in groups. They are very peaceful. They have the reputation of being skittish, but mine are always out and hang out together. I regret not to have bought a few more.
My bangai cardinal fought each other and only one remained. I now have 2 pajama cardinal and the larger one chase the small one form time to time, Never seriously but they do not school.

 

[CLYRIC]

I would recommend either a bangaii or pajama cardinal. They are peaceful and very pretty. You could also get some fire fish. And if you are looking for something bigger you could try some anthias.

How many banggai cardinal/pajama cardinal can I get for a 55 gallon? Also can they both be together or will they kill each other off?
Also I was thinking of getting a melanurus wrasse as well. do you think they will fight with an anthias?

 

[CLYRIC]

Scissortail dartfish do better in groups. They are very peaceful. They have the reputation of being skittish, but mine are always out and hang out together. I regret not to have bought a few more.
My bangai cardinal fought each other and only one remained. I now have 2 pajama cardinal and the larger one chase the small one form time to time, Never seriously but they do not school.

Do you know if scissortail darfish like to hide in rockwork or not? I've got a firefish and a royal gramma that spends 95% of the time in the rockwork and I was looking for some fish that can be out in the open.

Also can banggai cardinal and pajama cardinal be together or will they kill each other off? Also do pajama cardinal/banggai cardinals like high, medium, or low flow in the tank? (Right now the flow in my tank is somewhat in the medium in my opinion)

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I am not familiar with anthias, nor melanurus wrasse. I have a sixline wrasse and never had any problem with it. It is in my larger tank, but I used to have one in a 50 G tank.
the cardinals are not very active fish, but they are out on the open. My 2 pajama cardinal are ok together as the chasing is minimal, they are in my 40G tank along with firefish and scissortail.
But when I had 3 bangai I ended with only one. Also they did not live very long.
For schooling in my large tank, I have green chromis, but to avoid them killing each other you would need a minimum of 6, which is probably to many in your tank. I have 7 for about 5 years. you could of course get only one.
Size wise and for a beautiful fish you could consider a coral beauty angel or an Eibli angel ( this is what I have), but I do not have any corals and I do not know how they would be with corals. My guess is it would depend both of the fish and the corals.
My 2 scissor tail are always out, I also think that if you had more than 2, like 3 or 4 they would be less likely to hide. They do not fight with my firefish. They do hide at night.

 

[Dave1993]

Fish rarely school in the home aquarium

 

[PatW]

I do not know of any fish that ”school” in a reasonably sized reef aquarium. “Schooling” as far as I understand it, means the fish are arrayed in a configuration almost like atoms in a crystalline lattice,

Now there are a number of fish that will hang out together and sort of look like they are schooling,

I have tried blue green chromis with no real luck. They tend to murder the lowest rank fish until there is one left …. “Ten LIttle Indians”. You can give it a try. They are not expensive.

I have tried Bengai Cardinals but they pair off and the pairs are territorial. And they murder other pairs. But a pair in a 55 gallon would be nice.

I have heard that some other cardinals and dart fish aggregate.

The problem you often get is conspecifics (members of the same species) often trigger aggression and in an aquarium, they cannot get away from each other. They can do this in the ocean.

A thing you might try is get closely related fish (congenerics) and hope they hang out together somewhat peaceably. You can try fairy wrasses, flasher wrasses, chromis, dart fish, cardinals and some of the not so berserk small damsels. If the fish are attractive and swim actively in the same space, they should create a nice display.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Many species of dottybacks form harems. A harem of captive-bred orchid dottybacks would be stunning.

You can have multiple pygmy whitespotted filefish in an aquarium with little conflict. While they won't school, they will live in groups.