Question about competability

[HookedOnReefing]

I'm playing with a couple ideas and need some answers please.

1. Is it possible to safely house different species of Rabbit fish together? I know they're peaceful usually but don't know if they get along with each other.

2. Are rabbit fish reef safe?

3. Besides the typical green, blue and purple Chromis as well as Cardinal fishes, is there another type of reef safe schooling fish available?

The tank in which these fishes are to be housed is a 135 gal and has a 40 gal sump. The only fishes in the system now are a 6" Hybrid Tang and a 3" Zebrasoma (sp.) Tang.

Thanks!

[billpa]

1. Although most rabbitfish school in the wild, I'd stick with one or a pair if thats how they are offered. They are peaceful fish but tend to be aggressive with members of their own kind. If you must have more than one, best bet is to introduce them all at once and/or select fish of different sizes. Having plenty of hiding spaces will help as well. When you introduce it/them, make sure you keep your lights off and leave the tank alone. IME they are rather skiddish fish. They will slowly become more social over the course of a couple of weeks (max). But in the begining, just let them adapt to their surroundings.

2. Most likely yes. However they could sample some corals. Just have to observe the fish while in your tank over a period of time.

3. Most of these fish dont technically school. Schooling is a defense against predation. In your tank, they wont have any predators (at least I hope not..hehe). Most groups of Chromis I have seen in peoples tanks tend to break up after awhile. Same with Cardinals. Sometimes, once they (cardinals) have established a pecking order, they will turn on the weaker ones and beat the **** out of them. I know of one person that was keeping a group of orange line cardinals. He said everything went well...they were actively spawning. And then slowly they began to turn and fight eachother. He lost quite a few from what I understand. But I have also seen a few keep a small group of blue eyed cardinals successfully. I would definitely research it further. These fish dont school...I believe the technical word is shoal or shoaling.

Good Luck!
billpa