CHEAP Schooling fish

[H3rm1tCr@b]

Chromis! I have three, and they're awesome. I discovered an interesting tip though. Perhaps to help limit aggression when keeping multiples, try getting a big one and a whole bunch of small ones. Then they already have a clear alpha and the rest just falls into place. Like with clownfish. The biggest = most dominant, and the rest just stay sexless and reasonably happy.

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

Oh check out Bangaii cardinalfish too. They are cheap and really pretty. They seem to do well in groups from what I've seen.

 

[fattiremike]

Survival rates of chromis may be related to the amount of hiding space as well. I have an acro tank overgrown with green slimers and a couple of other no-name acros. They all have their assigned hiding places within the acros.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

I'd seriously research the longevity of bangaii groups if your set on them because unless you have a very large tank they tend to either kill each other off or avoid each other as they mature.
We bred them and had a 8x2x2 that had about 200 in it and as they matured we knew because a pair would have about 2ft to themselves. When this happened we had to try and scoop them out before they killed anything.
In general they look great when young and happy in each others company but mature into nasty pieces of work. Some have luck but that's few and far between ime.

As and alternative blue streak cardinals play nice together and form good groups for and few years. They do tend to spread out more as they age but don't seem to kill one another off. You could also consider chalk bass, they should be cheap and although they won't tightly group you can keep multiples in the same tank without much issue.

Chalk bass at an LFS are $28

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

I'm also from the northwest suburbs (Vernon Hills). What stores are you looking at? Most LFS's will give you big discounts for buying large quantities. On most wholesale lists, Bangaii's are $3 each so I think you could reasonably get them for $15 each is you buy a school.

I'm right around the corner (Long Grove) I do a lot at Sho Tank who has the best prices anywhere around here but sadly those prices are the ones I've mentioned and I guess not average lol. I occasionally go to seaschor, Aquarium adventure, beyond the reef and reef wise as well but their prices are all MUCH higher so I usually just look around at those stores unless there's a good sale. Where do you like to shop for you fish and corals?

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

Glad I posted this! Thank you all for your responses, I was not aware of the aggression between bangaiis with each other so I'm glad to have learned this, and am also glad to hear I'm not the only one to have problems with chromis. Now I have a twin spot hogfish I need to get rid of because it's been eating my cardinals fins at night I guess -.-

 

[Jesterrace]

I can't help you on price per fish, but what I can suggest is a trio of dartfish that are very likely to behave.

A Trio of Zebra Barred Dartfish would give you the schooling/shoaling look and unlike the others they aren't going to be prone to picking each other off over time, and given that you would only need 3 of them it wouldn't be too bad on cost:

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1926+150&pcatid=150

 

[Daniel@R2R]

These are the ones I want. Red Spot Cardinals photo by @melev

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

I have some saltwater converted mollies, that also are breeding, keep them in a frag chamber, they hang out together, and kinda pretty.

 

[jx fang]

How about these? $8 each.

 

[jsvand5]

How about these? $8 each.

Looks nice until they kill each other.

 

[jsvand5]

These are the ones I want. Red Spot Cardinals photo by @melev

Amazing fish just so hard to keep alive in any numbers for more than a few months.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

How about these? $8 each.

$8 each? Are they fake? I am serious

 

[AcroNem]

How about these? $8 each.

I try not to be too harsh, but it's honestly a terrible idea. Unless you can properly treat them and get them eating as many times per day as possible with constant sponge in their diet they probably won't last long.

$8 each? Are they fake? I am serious

Idols are usually 1.50 ish on the import lists i get every week. After freight it's probably around $10 each. Not sure where they got 8 from.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I try not to be too harsh, but it's honestly a terrible idea. Unless you can properly treat them and get them eating as many times per day as possible with constant sponge in their diet they probably won't last long.



Idols are usually 1.50 ish on the import lists i get every week. After freight it's probably around $10 each. Not sure where they got 8 from.

That’s still insanely cheap. Poor fish

 

[ScottR]

I try not to be too harsh, but it's honestly a terrible idea. Unless you can properly treat them and get them eating as many times per day as possible with constant sponge in their diet they probably won't last long.



Idols are usually 1.50 ish on the import lists i get every week. After freight it's probably around $10 each. Not sure where they got 8 from.

He is my friend. He’s right, they are cheap where we live. JX Fang is a great fishkeeper. Perhaps not a feasible fish for most people but not as impossible as what we hear. If you can buy in person, you can ask them to feed them to see if they’ll easily take food.

 

[jx fang]

I'm not here to argue about how to keep a moorish idol.
Some can do it, some can't.
The fish does cost me $60HKD equals $7.7USD.
And they do really shoals in my tank.
Fishes are eating everything I put in the tank, including pellets recently.
Will take a video of them eating pellets, when I have the chance.
In the past we can't even keep clowns alive, now they bite your fingers.
I'm just like everyone else, heard those horror stories about moorish idol, how hard to keep, never dear to try.
Once I read about Pablo of NLS to keep the fish with just 2 feedings a day of sole NLS pellets, I'm sold.
I'll try to documents the progress of my fishes, and let you guys know update benchmarks of 3 months, 6 months, a year, and every year afterwards.
No one knows how to exactly keeping this fish.
We can only learn from experiences.

 

[AcroNem]

I'm not here to argue about how to keep a moorish idol.
Some can do it, some can't.
The fish does cost me $60HKD equals $7.7USD.
And they do really shoals in my tank.
Fishes are eating everything I put in the tank, including pellets recently.
Will take a video of them eating pellets, when I have the chance.
In the past we can't even keep clowns alive, now they bite your fingers.
I'm just like everyone else, heard those horror stories about moorish idol, how hard to keep, never dear to try.
Once I read about Pablo of NLS to keep the fish with just 2 feedings a day of sole NLS pellets, I'm sold.
I'll try to documents the progress of my fishes, and let you guys know update benchmarks of 3 months, 6 months, a year, and every year afterwards.
No one knows how to exactly keeping this fish.
We can only learn from experiences.

Okay. So how long have you had them? How long have you kept others in the past? Were these run through any kind of quarantine before being added to your system? If you're documenting something like this it would be great to have a thread on it so it's all in one place and we'll documented.

 

[clekchau]

I'm not here to argue about how to keep a moorish idol.
Some can do it, some can't.
The fish does cost me $60HKD equals $7.7USD.
And they do really shoals in my tank.
Fishes are eating everything I put in the tank, including pellets recently.
Will take a video of them eating pellets, when I have the chance.
In the past we can't even keep clowns alive, now they bite your fingers.
I'm just like everyone else, heard those horror stories about moorish idol, how hard to keep, never dear to try.
Once I read about Pablo of NLS to keep the fish with just 2 feedings a day of sole NLS pellets, I'm sold.
I'll try to documents the progress of my fishes, and let you guys know update benchmarks of 3 months, 6 months, a year, and every year afterwards.
No one knows how to exactly keeping this fish.
We can only learn from experiences.

Can I see your tank and learn from your experience?

 

[AcroNem]

Can I see your tank and learn from your experience?

I'm not sure we'll have any more contact with this member unfortunately. There was no response to my last post.