Schooling Fish

[seafansar]

I have a school of 5 Carberryi (Threadfin) anthias. I love them. They usually swim near one another, not in a tight school, but together.

 

[nayrgaijin]

Scissor Tail Goby school fairly well

 

[wishntoboutside]

chiming in on this one. anthias are great if you keep your water a lil cooler. cant go wrong with the lyrtails, bartlets, squams. just got to feed them. i am missing around with some of the longspine cardinals right now. i got five. i need more but so far the are cool and eating.

 

[CookieJar]

I'm one of the rare ones that have had 5 chromis peaceful togther for over a year. they mostly shoal, but unless you have a big tank, don't expect them to stay tight together. With a 120 I doubt they'll stay bunched up unless they're in fear. Better to get a pair of fish that are mated that stay together IMO.

 

[sps4mytank]

i have dual 120's next to each other. I just want some *gangster* type fishes

 

[rng_pw]

I have 2 bartlet anthias that are never more that a foot away from each other. I eventually want to add about 5 more. Bartlets are really a pretty fish also and dont add a huge bio load to your tank.

 

[litenyaup]

i have purple fire fish and they are always next to each other. im going to be getting some anthias....for the schooling and the colors!

 

[mgny]

I picked up 4 threadfins a few years ago and 1 survived past the first week . He has grown to a nice size and the blue coloration has improved quite a bit. 2 weeks ago i picked up 6 more and 2 made it. They are shooling together with no fighting even though the original one is twice their size. Want to have 6 or so in the school so will keep my eye out at the lfs. They are cheap to boot $10 and make a really cool display.

 

[hawkfishman]

clowns if put in small and all the same size look neat, i've had 6 in one tank for over 5 years and the all hang together all the time. a buddy of mine has 7 royal gramms he put in at the same time and they do great. our denver zoo has a display with around 12 to 15 royal grammas and it's pretty cool looking and they are so much easier to care for than most anthias

 

[roscoe]

This is interesting. I will be following this as I want a nice school of small fishes in my 270g. Right now I have 3 large tangs PBT, Achilles and Chevron, large Majestic Angel, African gold Midas Blenny, 4 fairy wrasse, pink spot sand sifter goby and 10 small blue/green chromis. I started with 12 chromis about 8 months ago and now only have 9-10. I am hoping they end up killing each other LOL as they are ugly IMO when they get big. I only put them in my 270g to help move cycle my 270g.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I decided on the threadfin cardinals. I started with 10. Eventually over a period of two months they picked down to 3. However, I have since learned it could have been a deficiency during development that may have caused some of the issues (these guys were tank bred). However my current three (just celebrated 1st birthday with me) are healthy and happy. They do shoal together most of the time. Rarely too far apart from each other. However, as many have commented, they are very motionless fish. Cool, but do not provide motion in the tank.

My anthias have decided to split their trio to one on each side of the tank with the little one going between the two freely. Not sure if this will stay though. The bigger two are starting to get close to each other without chasing. (I had one for many months and added two more, although intended to add four more till two died in QT). They are fun to watch swim and are active fish.

However, gotta say, wrasses (cirrhilibrus spp) are some of my favorite fish for activity and personality. Get a pair or trio, and you will have lots of fun activity.

 

[mcarroll]

Schooling fish are tougher than most people are willing to aclowledge. At least in person, I have yet to see anything but solo schooling fish work out in a reef in the long term. All seem to have the schooling behavior that dictates a "low man" who receives all the hostilities. Having no place to run, he eventually succumbs to the stress. The remaining school proceeds to select a new "low man"....repeat until you have a solo act. If there were tiny schooling species such as you'd find in freshwater, I think our experiences would maybe be different. With the fish available, there's just no way for someone at home to keep anything close to a sustainably sized school of dozens or more individuals.

On the experimental side, Klein's Butterflyfish (a slight risk in a coral tank, but I personally know several people who keep them) seem to be strong schoolers and at least in my experience don't seem to subscribe to the behavior noted above. Definitely do some more web searching on your own before deciding on any of the fish that have been suggested so far. IMO, the cardinals are the best-suited for your tank of all those, but also the most boring (to many people they look like freshwater fish).

As a more off-the-wall suggestion, how about a crew of Barnacle Blennies? While not schooling, they are social and very entertaining to observe. I've seen them blended into reefs from 20 gal up to 250 gal and they're still cool.

-Matt

 

[hermesfansf]

I actually like the threadfin cardinals. i had seen 8 of them schooling in my friend's 300g tank once. They were in captivity for more than 5 years and They looked amazing. Sadly, my friend lost them in recent tank crashed. I for sure will get 8 of them once my 450g tank is fully cycled.

 

[MattinIdaho]

I have 7 Chromis that shoal pretty well. I have a Melanarus Wrasse that darts across the tank and keeps them little bit wound up so they shoal pretty good. Before I added the Wrasse they were scattered all across the tank.