Looking for a schooling fish

Breakthecycle2 · May 8, 2015

No chromis! lol. I'd like to get a minimum of 6 of the same species. I have a 200 plus 60ish sump. I know anthias are schooling, but I'd prefer to stay on the "rarer" side. Less then $600 for the group. Are there any fairy/flasher's that will "school"? Open to suggestions.

Current inhabitants:

mimic tang
pair of hooded wrasses
Scotts Fairy
Rehead jaw fish
Auroa goby and pistol
Golden pygmy angel
snow bass

Humblefish · May 8, 2015

Cardinals immediately come to mind, but none of those are "rare". Pentapodus (breams/whiptails/banana fish) are "unusual" and school as juveniles, but not so much as they grow into adults. They also may eat crustaceans when they get bigger. Keeping a school of wrasses is a PITA IME, because the largest female always seems to morph into a male eventually.

eatbreakfast · May 8, 2015

Fairy and flasher wrasses are social but do not school.

Zebra, scissortail, and blue gudgeon dartfish shoal, which is similar to schooling, but none are particularly rare.

Parvulus cardinals school exceptionally well and are significantly more active during the day than many other cardinal species, but they require frequent feedings and do better in groups larger than 6.

shred5 · May 8, 2015

Very few fish will actually school in a aquarium.. Most anthias dont really school much either but I have Ignitus anthias and they school and stay very close together though..

Your redhead jawfish, do you have a pic? I have one also but have only ever seen one other ever.

Breakthecycle2 · May 8, 2015

shred5 said:
Very few fish will actually school in a aquarium.. Most anthias dont really school much either but I have Ignitus anthias and they school and stay very close together though..

Your redhead jawfish, do you have a pic? I have one also but have only ever seen one other ever.

I will try to take some pics. You have one too? Can I see a pic?

shred5 · May 8, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
I will try to take some pics. You have one too? Can I see a pic?

I would have to try and get a pic.. It is not easy he dont come out of his hole very often.

ca1ore · May 8, 2015

No fish will truly 'school' in our tanks. They are too small and lack the requisite predators. Some fish may shoal, but even that is rare.

Breakthecycle2 · May 8, 2015

shred5 said:
I would have to try and get a pic.. It is not easy he dont come out of his hole very often.

I'm really curious to see another one. I waited two years before I was able to find one.

Breakthecycle2 · May 9, 2015

So is it worth getting 6-8 green chromis for the effect Im looking for?

dbl · May 9, 2015

I have 5 blue-green Chromis in a 120g and I will say they pretty much stay together, rarely straying far from each other. It's close enough to shoaling for me. This is obviously just my experience with this particular group of fish. From what I've read, I think I can consider myself lucky I still have the original 5 I put in there nearly a year later!!!!

Breakthecycle2 · May 9, 2015

shred5 said:
Very few fish will actually school in a aquarium.. Most anthias dont really school much either but I have Ignitus anthias and they school and stay very close together though..

Your redhead jawfish, do you have a pic? I have one also but have only ever seen one other ever.

I got an OK pic.

shred5 · May 11, 2015

Yep he looks very similiar to ours. Our is a little darker but it looks like you used a flash which probably washed him out a little.
We took some pic's but we could not get one out of his hole. He so fast once he pops out to grab food. Maybe at night because he seems to dig big holes at night.
I have to get he pics we have of him from my Girlfriend that we took this weekend.
You dont see many of these. I went to pick up a pearly but they were out and said this was the only guy they had but did not know what it was, so I got him cheap.
Awsume fish..