reef safe fish that school?

[Jonathan]

I'm in the planning stage of setting up my first salt water aquarium. My tank will probably be in the 70 to 125 gallon range. I love to watch fish that school but my first tank will definately be a reef tank with both soft and hard corals. I'd like to find some small fish that regularly form tight schools. One that I know of is the coral catfish. What other species are there that would be reef safe?

[Jonathan]

I see that I've posted this in the wrong place, sorry! It looks like I don't have a way to move it myself, would a moderator please do that for me?

[Polkster13]

A good choice would be chromis (green, blue, blue-green, et cetera). Get about 12 to 20 and they will make a really cool school of fish. Cardinal fish are also another good choice.

You can do a google search on both of these fish and find tons of information on them.

[MikeP]

Chromis, but in the absence of threats they may eventually just kind of meander around and not exhibit real schooling behavior. Cardinals to a point - some like bangaii's when they mature and pair off will make a concerted effort to do in the others. In a larger tank you might be able to get away with it. Chalk Bass will form small shoals near the bottom of the tank. One of the hardier anthias like maybe lyretails - though your numbers would be limited in a 70 gallon you could do a haremic group maybe one male and 3 females. Also they do best with multiple small feedings per day.

Reef safe but with drawback are Plotosus lineatus a.k.a. Coral Catfish. Really cute when small they form gigantic ball shaped schools composed of several hundred juveniles in the wild. As they mature in your tank however they will lose the distinctive racing stripes and become more solitary. Also they have a very potent toxin on their spines so you need to treat them like you would a lion.

[brewercm]

Don't know if it helps or not but I had read on several occasions that keeping chromis in odd numbers increases their schooling instinct.

Possibly urban legend of some sort, but possibly worth a search.

[GaryP]

You might want to also consider firefish.

[Polkster13]

Just keep a lion fish in there. That will keep them in a school and will exhibit their nature behaviour as well. Put in a branching piece of acro and they will hover around it and dash bewteen the branches any time they see the lion. :skeezy

[Thunderkat]

I don't think a lion fish would be good for a beginner. Any toxic fish or fish with strong jaws I would stay way from if you are new to the hobby.

That firefish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=168) idea was very good.

You might also want to check out these fish (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1926) but I would stay away from the tangs, butterflies, and triggerfish for beginners despite what the link says.

[Polkster13]

I was making a joke, hence the smiley face. Guess I should have ended with a JK. I would not recommend a lion fish for a beginning aquarist or as a means to keep fish in a school. Reminds me of one of my favorite cartoons involving Foghorn Leghorn ("It's a joke, boy. Get it?"). I guess the humor was a little too dry. Will try to do a better job in the future.

[AlexKilpatrick]

I just bought four chromis' for my 180 (see pic at left), thinking they might school. They do kind of swim together occasionally, but I don't know if I would call it schooling. It doesn't seem all that different from just random swimming behavior. Maybe I should have bought five. :-) Seriously, I can't imagine the odd/even would make a difference.

I had thought chromis' were very non-aggressive, but one of them really tries to hassle the other fish at mealtimes. I think in general they are still much more docile than damsels.

I think 12-20 chromis would be too much for a 70, even if you had nothing else.

[Polkster13]

Uhmm, that would be 12 for a 70 gallon tank and 20 for a 125 gallon tank. And no that would not be too many for a tank that size. The nice thing about blue-green chromis is they stay small (less than 3 inches in total length). As long as you don't overfeed you will be fine.

[Fin-Addict]

A school of firefish are very neat to watch.
Hawaiian Bicolor Anthias also school up nicely, and are very hardy, good eaters.
We happen to have both here at the shop!

[Sherri]

You might want to also consider firefish.

I agree...just bought another purple firefish to go with my other & they immediately schooled and stay side by side now. And they are very nice looking fish.

[Richard]

Scissortail gobies. I have a group of five and they spend the day cruising the top area of my tank together. Very cool fish.

Firefish are great for a group that will hang out in the lower half of your tank.

Both are prone to getting into overflows unless you have megaflow overflows which have more closely spaced teeth.

[Jonathan]

I really like the firefish and if they school well that would be fantastic!
Will different species of firefish get along with each other?
The Hawaiian bicolor is pretty but the get a bit too large.
I do like the sissortail goby and would consider a few of those.
It's good to know that the coral catfish looses those stripes, that's one of their most attractive features and the fact that they school less as they get older is a downer too.
Yeah, I caught the joke about the lionfish on the first go-round Polkster, clever and I do like lionfish but $50 snacks for them . . . prob'ly not . .
Thanks for all the response!