Help with schooling fish

[steveoutlaw]

I'm trying to figure out a good way to go with schooling fish and have a couple of ideas. But I haven't had schooling fish before and would like some yays or nays about the following:

 

1. 3 Heniochus Duphrates

2. Lemon Chromis

3. Blue Reef Chromis

4. Ochrestriped Cardinals

5. Longspine Cardinals

 

Looking so see if anyone has kept any of the above in larger groups or if there are some others out there that I should consider.

[dmatt56]

I'm a big fan of the Red Spotted Glass Cardinals. LA sells them in lots of 5 and usually 2 lots at a time. Here's a link

 

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/itemdisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=178432&ref=4282&subref=AI&cmpid=E-_-TR-_-DDN-_-PRDCT

[steveoutlaw]

I'm a big fan of the Red Spotted Glass Cardinals. LA sells them in lots of 5 and usually 2 lots at a time. Here's a link

 

http://www.liveaquar...R-_-DDN-_-PRDCT

 

Those do look cool.

 

Keep the ideas coming.

[Coral Hind]

From your list I would go with the blue chromis. Check out Fazio's school of green chromis and dispar anthias. They look nice together.

 

I think the Heniochus diphreutes would stop schooling in your tank once they settle in and start to grow bigger.

[jimlin]

cardinals looks cool. reminds me of freshwater schooling fishes. wonder if they will end up being a snack if steve were to put them into his tank.

[Quantum Aquaria]

I would go with Chromis. Once they've finished picking each other apart to get to the right number, they are fantastic schooling fish. The Blue Reef Chromis are less aggressive towards each other than the green ones from what we've seen, and much, much nicer looking. If you do get chromis, the only thing you'll have to watch for is that they are very aggressive eaters and will pick at everything that hits the water surface.... they are smart and know exactly when you are going to feed and will be waiting. If you do have fish that are bottom dwellers or feed towards the middle, there is no way that any sort of food is going to drop down before the chromis eat them all without dumping a lot of food in, which of course, would lead water quality issues. Best to feed mixture of sinking and floating pellets if you need to used a auto feeder but if you feed by hand, best to squirt the food in.

[steveoutlaw]

Are you talking the blue/green chromis or the blue reef chromis? And are the lemon chromis no good for schooling fish?

Edited February 1, 2013 by steveoutlaw

[steveoutlaw]

And what about the Threadfin cardinalfish.

[Quantum Aquaria]

Are you talking the blue/green chromis or the blue reef chromis? And are the lemon chromis no good for schooling fish?

 

Both. But the blue reef are much nicer looking. Lemon chromis are borderline damsels in my opinion.

[treesprite]

Threadfin cardinal = glass cardinal ... they ship/transport VERY poorly, but are fairly hardy if they don't die right away. I won't try getting them again, because too many died while still with the vendor who re-ordered them without informing me of the problem, then the second batch all died too... I would have told him not to order them if I had known of the shipping sensitivity.

[Matt LeBaron]

Red Spot Cardinals are tough. I've ordered 15 total over the years from LA DD and currently have 1 alive. They are very poor shippers, even with the insane care that Divers Den ships their live stock with I lost at least one from each shipment within 3-5 days. They are also jumpers, I know people say that about some fish but these guys are simply amazing at it, you need a really good mesh cover of some sort.

 

I had 4 left before I moved 6 months ago but 3 didn't make the move. I've given up on them because I don't believe it is fair to keep trying at the cost of their lives. I can keep seahorses no problems but successfully taking care of the Red Spot Cardinals eludes me.