Schooling Fish??

[jman8811]

I have a 72 gal bowfront that has been up and runing for about 45 days now. I intend to keep soft corals and fish in the tank. I would like to add a group of schooling fish to add some motion to the tank, but the best recommendation my LFS had was Green Chromis. Nothing against Green Chromis, but does anyone have any recommndations for a more 'interesting' fish that can be bought in a group and will school in the tank?

[drummereef]

I've heard your tank need to be HUGE for a true school. Green chromis are probably your best bet, but again, they might not school anyway.

[kraze3]

To Reef Central

chromis may school for a while but eventually they will kill off the weaker until there are only 2 or 3 left. I have heard success stories of cardinal fish schooling.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...?pcatid=82&N=0

I think drummereef maybe right, you may need a bigger tank Im not sure.

[theatrus]

Another schooling type is anthias, but they need a lot of space and have some demanding care requirements.

[sir_dudeguy]

agree with the others. But for the chromis to even school, you need to have a bigger more aggressive fish in there that they will see as a threat.

[bertoni]

You could look into a collection of fairy wrasses. They are easier to keep than the Anthias, and might fit into that tank.

[jkmargerum]

Jman8811
I have a 215g with 7 chromis, and they stay mostly in the top 2/3 of the tank. Their swiming habits are like our lives... sometimes organized, and other times chaotic(sp)... We have a really peaceful tank, look at the signature. Two of our chrimos have taken the Hippo Tang as moma, and sleep in the same cave. They bring a lot of motion to the tank, and as of yet we have not seen any fighting. Our tank has lots o caves, so when one of the bigger chromis get aggresive, the others simply swim into a hiding spot for a few minutes, and that has satisfiyed the aggresive one so far... the smaller ones are much faster. You must put them into the new tank as a group or they will fight. Our LFS had all 7 of ours in a 20g tank for nearly a month before we brought them home.
We also have 3 yellow tangs, but your tank is not big enough. They swim together a lot, even play a little lazy follow the leader through the rocks.
We also have 3 cleaner wrasse, most people say they die very quick, but ours we at the LFS for a month, and we have had them a month with no issue. They are very fun to watch, lots of fast swimming, they do low level swim bys all of the time, zipping in and out of cave and they love to play follow the leader at nearly a blur of speed in and around my clam. I would get two of them, put themin at the same time, and enjoy the show... Just make sure the LFS feeds them in front of you, and they eat the food mix. Ours eat mysis and the veggie clip.
Good luck with your search, I hope this helps a little.
Jay

[gabegmonkey]

I also have some of these fish and would recommend them... my 3 do basically everything JKMargerum's fish do. I've had mine for a couple months now and no real aggression and i'd assume it would be less with more fish... maybe you could try the Blue Reef Chomis (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=113) instead, it's "Cooler" looking... costs about 2x the price though...

[sir_dudeguy]

with more chromis you'll likely have MORE aggression, not less. There will be more of a pecking order that needs to take place. with fewer chromis (like in your case 3) they're probably gonna fight less because they already know what the pecking order is.

also..those guys get big. IMO having more than like 5 in a 72 is too much. And imo, three 5 inch fish in a 55 is too much. I know yours probably arent 5 inches yet, however you may have some fun tryin to catch them to get them out when the time comes to remove them.

[jkmargerum]

5 Inches???? What reference are you using?

Check this out: This page states 3"
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=115

This page states 4" wild 2" aquarium
http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSh...en_chromis.htm

This page states less than 3"
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/mari...sels/green.php

This page states 3" as well
http://www.tropicalfish.at/saltwater...s/chromis.html

I have never seen in published documents any where a tank kept chromis has grown to 5 inches. I would love to see a photo of one as I think they are a great looking fish.

Jay

[Andrew]

^ Pretty sure hes talking about the Blue reef chromis which do get rather large.

[sir_dudeguy]

5 Inches???? What reference are you using?

the one right before me lol it says 5 right on the page. That may be higher then NORMAL for a blue-green chromis, but even if its 4 inches...thats still quite big to have a bunch of them.

And also just because those places say 3 inches...thats not written in stone. I've seen GREEN CHROMIS at 4 and 5 inches, which are usually smaller than the blue green chromis. My lfs has a whole bunch of them in a 300 gallon display right inside the door.
BLUE-green chromis are a different fish. Very similar yes, but different. They dont even come from the same place. Blue greens come from the carribean.
The green chromis on the otherhand come from the indo-pacific and red sea.

[Swanwillow]

flasher wrasses.
one male, 3-5 females... and your set

[jman8811]

Thanks for the suggestions all. I'll let you know how it goes. I think you talked me into going back and getting the green chromis.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Sorry. Sometimes we only hear what we want to hear.
IME Chromis will always (eventually) kill the weaker ones and end up in a spawning pair or trio. Although they may appear to swim together, Chromis do not "school".

[sir_dudeguy]

i talked you INTO getting chromis? lol i hate chromis but if you like em' by all means get em, but expect some to die

[itz frank]

You know what, Everyone says you shouldn't keep x amount of this or that in a tank because it's not enough of something or another. I have 4 tangs in my 90 and know of people that have 6 in a 92 corner and we don't have any problems. My liverock is set up so that there's plenty of free range swimming room in front and up high in the tank. They really do enjoy it. I think that if you had enough swimming room in the 72 that three small yellows won't be a problem and it'll take them atleast a year and a half to get big enough to become a problem. At that point you can just net them and take them back to the fish store for store credit that will be 3 times the amount u bought it for. Just food for thought. The main problem with keeping fish like tangs is that they can get very large. But they won't get that big for years. JMHO. -frank

[Gary Majchrzak]

I'd suggest Apogon leptacanthus (Bluestreak/ Blue eye Cardinalfish) as an appropriate schooling fish for a 70 gallon aquarium.
Tanu has some in his TOTM aquarium here:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...totm/index.php

[sir_dudeguy]

I think that if you had enough swimming room in the 72 that three small yellows won't be a problem and it'll take them atleast a year and a half to get big enough to become a problem.

there would not. Theres only enough for maybe one yellow tang in a 72g tank. I'm not saying that theres not enough swimming room for multiple yt's, cuz there prolly is (somewhat), but the problem would be the territorial issues. They wouldnt have enough space to claim "theirs" from the other yt's.

and the lfs wont give you more just because your fish is bigger when you return it. I wish it were tho, because i've done that several times, however each time they've only given me less than half of the price.

[sir_dudeguy]

i agree on that cardinal tho. But again, most fish will need a bigger badder tougher/meaner fish in the tank before they'll school. Otherwise they'll likely just kinda stray off, sometimes forming loose schools.

[SuperNerd]

I agree with both of Gary's comments. Chromis will eventually dwindle down to one or two and if I could get my pudgy little hands on a small group of local blue eyed cardinalfish I would certainly do that over buying fish that would eventually kill each other.