If we can't have schooling fish.....

[jaxteller007]

I've seen some talk about how it's hard to get schooling marine fish in our tanks as there aren't predators to force them together, we don't have public aquarium sized aquariums (unless you're the guy the with the 20,000 gallon tank at home lol), etc.
I'm trying to think of the next fish to add to our tank and if we can't do schooling/shoaling fish what are some that you can keep multiples of like 2-3 or more?
Our current setup is a 180 (standard size/shape I reckon.. 72x24x24) pretty much a FOWLR but we do have one branching Duncan coral.
The current line up is.. 1 Lt tang, 2 yellow tangs, 1 vlamingii tang, 1 flame tang, 1 magnificent foxface, 1 marine betta, 1 coral beauty angel, 1 golden face goby, 1 bonded pair black & white ocellaris clowns, 1 bonded pair watchman goby and pistol shrimp, 1 green chromi, 1 scooter blenny, 1 banggai cardinal, 1 aiptasia eating filefish (who doesn't eat aiptasia lol) and 1 melanurus wrasse (pretty sure it's a male). Then of course a bunch of snails and some hermits. Oh yea and our little bulldozer of a horseshoe crab aka Frank the Tank.

This tank won't ever be a coral heavy tank. We may add one or two more of the more hardy and easy to care for species down the road.

So what are some other fish we could add that while maybe not schooling would be something we could add multiples of? I know the wife is pretty insistent that we add a couple more green chromis.

 

[Casket_Case]

 

[jaxteller007]

I'll have to give that a watch.

 

[Fishurama]

Cardinal fish are common and cheap generally, not too aggressive, you have to keep them in certain numbers(I think 2,4,6,8,etc don't quote me on that) if i remember correctly and they should be ok. This guy has a lot. You might have some issues, but depending how many you get, in a 180 i don't see to many fights if any at all.



Cardinal fish

" Like many other schooling fish, the Orbic Cardinal fish will form a strict hierarchy when kept in small groups within the aquarium. However, unlike some social fish, this member of the Apogonidae family does not use aggression to exert dominance over other cardinalfish. "

 

[sp1187]

My 4 blue green chromis are always together. My 3 female lyretail Anthias spend a lot of time together, the male joins them periodically.