Schooling fish

bowkry · #1 09-28-2009, 04:08 AM

sea bass are amazing

Bob · #2 09-28-2009, 04:12 AM

I won't tell my anthias(bartletts)that they are suppose to eat more than once a day...

Dez · #3 09-28-2009, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

I won't tell my anthias(bartletts)that they are suppose to eat more than once a day...

How long have you had the anthias and how many do you have in what sized tank? Do they show themselves lots as I heard they can be quite shy. Thanks so much. My tank is a 150 gallon.

fishytime · #4 09-28-2009, 04:33 AM

If you want to be technical, we can never really do a school of any kind of fish in our aquariums.....we add six chromis and think we have a "school" when in the wild these fish school together in numbers we can only dream of keeping....what we do is add "groups" of these fish and slowly watch one fish in the group become dominant and pick on the weaker fish.....I would also recommend anthias of some sort if you want to try a group of fish.... my four bartlets stay together most of the time... two of them are bolder than the other two and spend most of the time out in the open...the other two stay in the rock work most of the time.....bartlets are hardier and stay smaller than most anthias which also a plus....

naesco · #5 09-28-2009, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dez

How long have you had the anthias and how many do you have in what sized tank? Do they show themselves lots as I heard they can be quite shy. Thanks so much. My tank is a 150 gallon.

I would not recommend any anthias. Like was posted, they. like green chromis, do well for a while and drop off one by one.

I would recommend flasher wrasse. Choose the species you like. You will need one male an 5 females.
You will have to order them in as females are not normally caught.

Do not think of buying them unless your tank is covered though.

Drock169 · #6 09-28-2009, 05:26 AM

I second the choice for the bar/zebra gobies, and you could mix in some scissortails with them. Both choices are jumpers though. Chalk bass will also form small groups. Generally I just tell people to give up on the idea of schooling stuff, its just not practical. You can also look into the mini dartfish, they max at about 1 inch. A. megastigma and T. collini, i think are the names, common name is something like tiny dartfish.

Youngster Dan · #7 09-28-2009, 05:53 AM

I heard glass cardinal fish school together, could be an option.

Delphinus · #8 09-28-2009, 07:35 AM

What about threadfin cardinals? I thought they were the "en vogue" schooling fish of the day (ie. no issues with hardiness like anthias, jumping like wrasses, or turning on each other like chromis). ? (I could be wrong but I thought I read that's what people look for these days when they want a "schooling" fish..)

They look a little like tetras to me, but if they are a true schooling fish then you can overlook that a little, IMO.

(Well, I happen to LIKE tetras, so maybe it's a bonus..)

Apogon leptacanthus

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/mari...rdinalfish.php

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cardinal.htm

Other possibilities include other cardinals, like pajama cardinals, I think I've heard they can school. (Sphaeramia nematoptera)

HTH

Bob · #9 09-28-2009, 02:20 PM

i have four in a 72 gallon(anthias)

kien · #10 09-29-2009, 03:56 PM

what i've noticed about "schooling fish" over the years is that they tend to drift out of the school after a while. Schooling is a defensive mechanism. Safety in numbers. It makes them feel secure. Whenever I have put schools in (chromis, anthias, cardinals, etc), they school for up to a few months but after that they start to feel comfortable and come to realize that there aren't really any predators in the tank. It starts with one of the fish breaking rank and swimming on its own, then another one and the next thing I know they are all over the place and only come together as a school on rare occasions. I suppose in that case they are still schooling, but for the most part I just end up with a bunch of the same fish swimming all over the place. Maybe I just never had enough critical mass of fish for them to stay in the school. Maybe this is just in my tanks but that's been my experience :-)

Anyway, my favourite schooling fish are the barletts or queen anthias. I used to have a school of 6 pajama cardinals but my wife said they look like Gollum wearing pajamas so i sold them (save for one). They did school for the short while that I had them.