Schooling fish

GreenSpottedPuffer · #1 10-04-2008, 07:43 AM

Hmmmmm....well as of this morning my "school" of chromis and other damsels is looking a little thin. And my grouper is looking kind of portly. I think he has a "damsel gut".

Darn...I guess you were right Untamed...schools may not last too long with an eating machine in the tank. Weird thing is, he only ate two in his first month in the tank and then suddenly he ate I would say four between sometime yesterday and this morning. The rest (about 4) are now in disarray but still stick together most of the time. Not quite the same as before though.

Well I don't know if I will add any more. I think they will just keep becoming midnight snacks. Too bad because they really added some nice colour and movement to the tank

On a side note, this grouper is NEVER full. He ate a prawn and a half last night for dinner and still ate damsels all night...jeez. I don't know how this is going to work when he hits 20 or 22". I hoped the 240G would be enough but now I think he may need a bigger tank

tang daddy · #2 10-06-2008, 07:40 AM

just a thought but if you still want to try schooling fish you could try some blue eyed cardinals.... I had 3 chalk bass in my tank and they would pick on each other maybe if you added it all the same time they may get along however the B.E. cardinals school for sure. I recently bought 7 and they're all doing well the first few days they all hid but now they are out more frequently if you feed them a mix of mysis and colour enhansing flakes they glow a nice blue in their eyes and belly also get orange stripes. Aftr seeing how well they school I want to add another 13 to make a total of 20. Here is a pic I googled to give you an idea. Hope it is helpfull.http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...%3D2%26hl%3Den

TheRealBigAL · #3 10-06-2008, 08:39 AM

Odd numbers are always better for schooling fish. I would go 19 or 21.

Trigger Man · #4 10-09-2008, 01:42 AM

Thanks everyone for the info, in the end I went with 4 Zebra Dartfish, (they hide till the evening but then all 4 school together) and have purchased 3 Look Downs (2.5ish inches each). I figure this gives me a good reason to have to upgrade to a larger tank later on.

Whatigot · #5 10-09-2008, 03:22 PM

Bummer, I have 6 chalk bass and they don't fight at all.
They swim eachg at different levels int he tank with the highest in the hierarchy having the highest position in the tank and the lowest being at the lowest.

No preds in my tank so they only school when they are feeding or occasionally for no reason.
really nice fish though and my tank is a standard 72 gallon bowfront (4ft long) with about 100 lbs of LR.
My tank is also OPEN TOP, and I have NEVER had a chalkie jump.

Aquatic Addictions has Chalk Bass for 14.99, JL has them for 22.45 so if anyone wants to get some of these nice fish, Dan is the guy to talk to as he already said he would order me 3 more for my "school".

I would like to get a predator now though, after reading this thread.

Cheers, a little late I know, but you gotta put in input where you can because there is so much more I don;t know than I know.