Good schooling fish in 120G

[Benoit Martin]

I'm working on my livestock list for my first SW tank and I wanted to know if there are any good schooling fish I could target.

I'm a beginner and only interested in peaceful fish. I'll start as a FOWLR but I'll probably add a few softies and LPS down the line once I'm more experienced. The tank will be a 120G.

Not necessarily looking for big schools because I don't want to overcrowd the tank but fish that schools in groups of 3-5 would be cool

Thank you

 

[tdileo]

My suggestion is dartfish or a couple lyretail anthias. Both are hardy and inexpensive. Chromis will school until they get settled in after around a month. Then most of the time they’ll start killing each other.

 

[JBKReef]

The chromis thing is tough to overcome. I've heard success is schooling chromis if there is competition for food and if there are other aggressive tank makes that keep the fish shoaling and not just schooling. If they do not perceive any danger they will begin to make their own aggression and start to pick each other off one at a time. This is just anecdotal and what i have experiences/ observed in other tanks.

 

[mta_morrow]

I currently have 3 azure damsels, 3 red striped cardinals, 3 zebra barred dart fish, and will be adding 4 more royal grammas to my existing small one.

In pairs are ocellaris clowns and wheelers goby bonded pair.

I also have some singles.

Having multiple pairs and trios or more in a tank is a pretty cool thing.

Select carefully to ensure they are all community type fish and you will be very pleased.

Very few fish may ever actually “school” in a home aquarium. Some do, but I have only seen it in very large tanks (300 gallons)

Small groups of the proper fish will however mostly stay together.

 

[ca1ore]

If you really mean 'schooling' then prepare for disappointment. Unless it's a huge tank with predators, it won't happen.

 

[Benoit Martin]

From the answers I got so far it looks like I learned something new today. I thought that schooling was just a "normal" behavior for some types of fish and didn't know they needed some specific conditions to actually stay together.

I'll still be looking at maybe a small group of dartfish in case they decide to stick together

 

[User1]

Lyretail anthias are pretty. Very fast. However, after just losing the four I had the past couple of months I will say that unless you buy 8 to 16 I would avoid them. Most anthias actually because the fewer you have it is only a matter of time before one becomes the most dominate and starts bullying the rest preventing them from getting enough food. At least that is what happened to me.

Metric ton of damsels is what I'll be adding mixing in Azures, Talbots, Tracy's, and a few other Chrysiptera members. Well, maybe not has many as @ca1ore but enough to get constant movement with a few Royal Gramma and Blackcap Basslets mixed in. We'll see how it goes but Anthias while pretty, fast, nice swim patterns are something I'm going to be passing on for a while.

 

[ca1ore]

I'll still be looking at maybe a small group of dartfish in case they decide to stick together

Hanging together and schooling are not the same thing, though I suppose many people might equate one with the other. Schooling is a quite specific term to describe that coordinated movement of a large group of fish. For what I'd think would be intuitively obvious, that just isn't happening in an aquarium. Groups hanging together (schoaling) is achievable. Some of the smaller anthias species will do it occasionally, as will some cardinals and damsels. In all cases schoaling is 'encouraged' with the presence of a few larger fish.

 

[Benoit Martin]

Hanging together and schooling are not the same thing, though I suppose many people might equate one with the other. Schooling is a quite specific term to describe that coordinated movement of a large group of fish. For what I'd think would be intuitively obvious, that just isn't happening in an aquarium. Groups hanging together (schoaling) is achievable. Some of the smaller anthias species will do it occasionally, as will some cardinals and damsels. In all cases schoaling is 'encouraged' with the presence of a few larger fish.

Yes, I understand the difference. I'll just take some schoaling if I can't get any schooling [emoji16]

 

[eatbreakfast]

Fusilier damsels, Lepidozygous tapeinosoma are social and hardy. As are zebra or scissortail dartfish.