no livestock yet but its for a 75 gallon tank i want a schooling fish that can be kept in a group of 4+ and are there any special requirements for ur suggestions?

firefish and green chromis first 2 that come to mind for me .. no special requirements.

Cardinals

how many firefish can i have ive only scene them in groups of 2

You must have one male and one female firefish. Any number other than that, and they will kill eachother.

anyothers?

How about a school of these jewels? Red Spot Cardinalfish. A couple of schools was listed on LA yesterday in their Divers Den section. Go for around $50 for 4 or $60 for 5. Both schools sold in a matter of minutes, so you'll have to act quick if you're interested.

i been reading some threads of people that kept redspot. and they're really hard to keep so think about it before getting them =\

sorry for such a noob quistion what type of clown is in your profile picture?? Basser1

dartfish (genus Ptereleotris) are much better in groups than firefish. Chromis are probably the cheapest option; apparently blue chromis are more peaceful than the more common green species. I'm not sure if anthias would do well in a 75, but they do school.

how big do anthias need to school i think they look so great my lfs has them schooling?

a school of blue reef chromis would awesome!

Sigh.

There Are No Schooling Fish That Fit In A Nano Tank Period Full Stop Do Not Pass Go Do Not Collect $200.

Chromis are shoaling fish not schooling fish. Greens will do what looks like a schooling behavior but over time you will find the weakest one being picked on by the others until there is only one left.

Blue's are a bit better about this but again are not schooling fish.

Firefish are very territorial and do not school.

Cardinals will also exhibit a schooling behavior which is actually shoaling and you can expect good odds that the same thing that happens with Green Chromis will happen with your Cardinals.

Anthias will congregate in harems that look like schools but you need a 120+ gallon tank for them and you need at least 6 with one being a male.

Some wrasse will also congregate in harems but again you need a large tank for this.

Just get a school of clowns, firefish are not an option as you will end up with 2 if you are lucky. Chromis are nice 5 dollar fish but cardianals are great(as long as you don't mind the cracked out look)LOL. I personally wouldn't suggest anthias in a 75. clownfish would harem up and be neat you will have the pair and then a bunch of ?unicks? not sure how to spell that.

I wish i would have known that distinction regarding the chromis. I got three young/ small ones for my tank and after 2 weeks or so of no issues, i found 2 chromis trapped in my surface skimmer. I believed my clown had driven them there. One unfortunately was dead, but the other was alive and kicking. As the tank light had already kicked off for the night i tossed the survivor back in and decided i'd figure out what was going on in the morning. Only to find my crabs picking at a green carcass in the dark of the morning. Only the largest Chromis remains.... He seems happy though.

They are looking for a 75 gallon, not a nano.

Dude, read the op before posting. It clearly stated that the tank is a 75 gallon.

Sorry Minitanker, I can't really help you with your question as I have no experience with schooling fish.

i vote for the cardnals, think they look really cool in groups

urchinhead: what about dartfish?

Also, most people don't care whether it's shoaling or schooling as long as the fish move in a group...

Dude bugger off. Doesn't change the fact that you can't put a decent set of harem type fish in that size tank unless you take all the other fish out and then you only end up with about 5 fish. So it doesn't matter if it was a 29 gallon or a 75 gallon the answer is the same.

Do not get Red Spots, they WILL DIE, period.

I'm with Urchinhead on this one, if you want schooling fish... look into a freshwater setup.

Other than firefish I don't have first hand experience with them but I would guess that in a 75 you could do a gaggle of about 3-4 if you had allot of rock work and hiding places. Keep in mind they hover and don't school per se except in the wild. They get up to about 5". And they are territorial. And if you don't luck out and get 1 male and all the rest female then you have a pit fight that goes on until all but one male is left.

And shoaling/schooling fish tend not to move in a group unless there is something that triggers the behavior. Not something you are going to find in our tanks. I suppose you could put a picture of whatever it is that eats them where they can see it and get some kind of behavior going but i doubt it.

OP could do a male flasher wrasse and 2-3 females and get a harem behavior going. Something like a McCoskers or the like but he will need to make damn sure that he gets one male and the rest being female and be ready to deal with some plain looking fish.



Thinking about Maeda's attempt at this? He could try it. Of course he would have to rig up a constant feed system, make sure that the food floated right in front of the fish, skim the hell out of the tank to deal with the high bioload and all but hey... What else are we going to spend our money on, right?

thank you

Ok. Bully for you. Now what are you going to put in there that "schools" and will fit comfortably in a 75? Realistically nothing. So my statement stands.

You can do a harem of flasher wrasse but will need to understand that the only really pretty one will be the male. You also might get away with three to four smaller fairy wrasse in there. That way at least you will get some more color options. Stay away from the Scott's though as they are very mean.

You will also need to make sure that you have either zero males or only one male with the rest female. Otherwise you are going to end up loosing one to more than one moderately expensive wrasse. Oh and I should also point out that the majority of the fairy wrasse collected tend to be male because they are more colorful and thus sell for more.

Also make sure to keep the tank covered. Wrasse will jump at their own shadows.

Here is a link for reference for reef safe wrasse:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquariu...s.cfm?c=15+1378

I am being an arse by the way because this question gets asked over and over again with the same responses. A simple search will get you the answer you needed. May not be the one you want though.

You're wrong, check out my old 40b. I kept 11 chromis in my tank. Granted, they did dwindle down to 6 (none were singled out and killed by the others), but I kept the 6 for well over a year.

Here's a couple of shoals or groups or whatever the pc terminology is of fish that is listed on LiveAquaria:

Trio of Blue Reef Chromis:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemD...&ddid=83826

Trio or Harem of McCoskers Wrasses (My favorite):

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemD...&ddid=83828

these may help
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=228952

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=224036

Actually I am not. You are an exception. I looked into this subject quite extensively and everyone talks about the Chromis. Almost everyone also talks about (eventually) how they kept loosing one after another. I then looked into what exactly a Chromis is and what its behaviors are in the wild.

Short form is they are part of the Damsel family, they are a shoaling fish and mistaken for a schooling fish because they are considered high density shoaling fish, they have their own territories and will defend them vigorously (if I remember right its about 1/2 cubic meter), and most of the sites that advertise them are flat out wrong. I constantly see sites refer to them as a "great schooling fish that shoals in the wild". These are two very distinct and different behaviors in fish.

"Shoaling is a special case of aggregating, and schooling is a special case of shoaling. While schooling and shoaling mean different things within biology, they are often treated as synonyms by non-specialists"

Your statement is akin to saying that just because you got a Mandarin to eat pellets in one day means that all Mandarin's will eat pellets in one day.



Have had these fish and enjoy them. They get darker over time, you don't need to buy them in a group, they are very poor shippers, they do not group constantly together. They are less aggressive towards each other than blue/green Chromis.



Ditto here. A harem is a nice grip of fish to have in the tank but as you can see the females are rather plain. They all do not swim in the same direction like a school of fish and they will be low density shoaling fish meaning that they stay somewhat close to each other. Same is true for the blue chromis.