Schooling fish

[Jan]

It was like the jonestown suicide... I know thats not funny, but eh, whatever..

More like Hale-bopp. There was a mobile tank waiting on the other side waiting to take them to that great ocean in the sky.

[DDiver]

I think green chromis and the cardinals school better then my lyretail anthias do. The Longspine or Threadfin cardinalfish (Apogon leptacanthus) is probably the best schooling cardinal, extremely peaceful. But if you want color then go with the Anthias.

 

+1 on the longspine cardinals..they school much better than chromis an anthias'..and the blue around there eyes just glows under the halides..it looked really boring in the LFS tank but when I got them in my tank I just fell in love with them..but make sure to buy a few more than u planned on because over time their numbers will dwindle..

[lhcorals]

They are extremely active fish and need the food and good flow, mine go back and forth all day long in the tank.. Never heard of feeding them at night, mine hide in the rocks at night... If you dont feed at least 2-3 times a day, dont get chromis or any other highly active fish..

 

 

I only feed my tank once a day. I have Chromis and they are fat.

[davelin315]

I have had no luck with Chromis and have heard that they do not truly school. I know that aggression can become an issue with them as well from experience. I have not, however, ever fed them as much as has been suggested here by the one's able to keep them.

 

I think the first question before getting "schooling" fish is what are you trying to achieve as far as movement and color? Personally, I find Chromis to look like freshwater fish so they're not my preference. I have a lot more room than you do to play around with, but I actually have two dussumieri tangs that "school" with a unicorn tang and they are periodically joined by a regal angel and a pacific blue tang as well.

 

Back to movement, are you looking for fish that will move in unison or fish that will split up and interact with each other? David/dschflier mentioned the yellow tail blue damsels - some of my all time favorite fish, and I feel like they are outstanding additions to a tank. They not only interact and will dart back and forth, but they will also pair up and breed readily in a healthy tank. You could also go with a group of anthias as well, typical harems in the wild consist of 20+ fish that congregate together. Another thought is a few clowns that are introduced together as juveniles. You could also get fish that will assert their territories against each other such as a couple of royal grammas.

 

That said, if you're looking for true schooling, you won't find many fish if any that will actually school together for a tank your size. I would go with colors you want to add and see where that leads you. If you suggest a color or combination, you'll find plenty of people on here who can suggest fish that will also add lots of movement to your tank.

[zygote2k]

If you are looking for a school of any kind of fish, you should introduce them to the tank before any other fish or just have a single species in the tank. A 75 can only comfortably hold about 15" of fish with the current filtration systems that we use now. The old rule of thumb was an inch of fish per 5 gallons and you won't have issues with N03.

 

In the 150, I had 5 chromis that would school all the time. Eventually the smaller ones were culled from the school, leaving 3. It seems to be hit or miss with chromis. You could always do Coral Cats. They form schools easily and do an excellent job of scavenging.

[chucelli]

It seems that we all have different definitions of what "success" means when keeping livestock.

I would like to hear from people who have successfully kept a shoal of 8+ chromis for at least 3-4 years without experiencing any steady declines.

And out of those who have "success" how many times you feed per day and what other factors you think has contributed to your long term success.

Also, I think most here are using the term schooling very loosely, as Dave pointed out, schooling behavior is not possible in your average captive aquarium.

[khalid]

I had 3 and now I am down to one due to carpet surfing. :(

[Boret]

I have had great success with Chromies. I have 6 chromies (pseudo, I wish I had gone with the blue). I also have 4 anthias (Lyretail) that school together with the Chromies. And a school of 5 pajama cardinals. It is really cool to see the chromies and the anthias together. I have had the chromis for about 2 years now. The anthias and chromis have been together for about 4 months.

I also have 3 tangs (Yellow, hippo and Kole), 1 damsel, 1 sixline, 2 clowns, 1 neon gobi and 1 orange spot goby.

[amc23]

I have had 7 blue green chromis for about 8 months and just lost my first one last week. They really sparkle under the metal halides, will follow your hand if you wave it in front of the tank, and have never been aggressive in my experience. As for the shrinking schools, I think maybe they just have a short life span and shouldn't be expected to live for more than 2 years, and if you have 7-10 of them, you will lose 1 or 2 in the first year. At $7 per fish, I don't think that is an unacceptable loss. I feed 1-2 times per day and have very good, but not pristine water conditions. I have been very very happy with the chromis and definitely advise any novices (like me!) to get a school given a large enough setup.

Alex

[davelin315]

According to liveaquaria.com the Blue Green Chromis have an expected captive lifespan of 8-15 years. My longest living chromis was for about 3 years and it lived by itself. I think that the feeding regimen is probably what's important here as the ones with success seem to feed a lot.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I started with 9 chromis 6 years ago and was down to 1 after a couple years. I still have that guy (he's the one seen in my mantis shrimp videos).

 

He doesn't seem to have grown at all, but he eats a lot.

 

When I see chromis in LFS, they never seem to be "schooling", even using the word loosely.

 

I have observed longspine cardinals at Roozen's more than one time and did consider what I saw there to be schooling (close cluster, uniform appearance and direction, uniform direction change). I haven't seen a big enough quantity of them elsewhere to make a determination.

 

tim