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Small Schooling Fish for a nano Reef


RDtrack

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cardinals

chromis

firefish

anthias

 

Also, schooling is different from shoaling and both are rarely, if ever, observed in nanos.

Edited by siwelk
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According to Coral Magazine, there are no true schooling fishes that we keep in in our tanks (except tangs, which are too territorial in our tanks), however there are fish that exhibit shoaling behavior.

 

All the fish that siwelk mentioned.

 

They say, the competition between each other for food, causes them to separate and scavenge by themselves. If you feed more often (3 times a day) you may have better luck.

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phiber_optikx

Should be fine. Be sure your redspot cardinals are very well established (2+ months) because they are very docile and may stop eating if they get pushed around during feeding.

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animalmaster6

They could do fine but I hear plenty of stories that they pick each other off in groups while in small tanks.

I personally would recommend a couple of assessors or dartfish.

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IMO, dartfish are the best choice, peaceful to each other even in small groups and easy to keep. A biocube would solve their only problem, jumping.

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IMO, dartfish are the best choice, peaceful to each other even in small groups and easy to keep. A biocube would solve their only problem, jumping.

 

 

If you can find them, I'd get a large school of dwarf dart fish.

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If you can find them, I'd get a large school of dwarf dart fish.

 

If' you're referring to dartfish similar to these:

 

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...amp;pcatid=2560

 

Basically no one online has really documented any long term success with them (that I know of). From what I understand you need continuous feeding to have a chance of them surviving. If I'm not mistaken rehype had some before so maybe he can chime in.

 

A group of them would be awesome though for sure.

Edited by Stumped
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Schooling will be an unattainable behavior in a nano tank. You'd be best findng a traditional pairing if you really want a social grouping.

 

Ps, Chromis will definitely create a heirarchal pecking order that will leave a dominate 1.1 pair, or in some case a 3 fish grouping. They schoal for protection. This is a much different behavior than what we traditionally view as a school. Schoaling is more of a mutual toleration that requires personal space between shoal members. They stick together, but genrally dont "school" unless there is the presence of a clear threat.

Edited by Harpo
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Schooling will be an unattainable behavior in a nano tank. You'd be best findng a traditional pairing if you really want a social grouping.

 

Ps, Chromis will definitely create a heirarchal pecking order that will leave a dominate 1.1 pair, or in some case a 3 fish grouping. They schoal for protection. This is a much different behavior than what we traditionally view as a school. Schoaling is more of a mutual toleration that requires personal space between shoal members. They stick together, but genrally dont "school" unless there is the presence of a clear threat.

what this guy said

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I just ordered a dozen redspots. I had several before they schooled by would break off into pairs once in a while. Mostly when they started to breed. These little guys are pretty hardy and held their own with a pair of clowns, a large potters angel. The angel used to love breaking them up when they clustered together. That is one secret to get schooling fish to group together. Get one larger fish (one that won't do much or any damage) to simply swim by the smaller fish and the fish will have a better chance to gather together.

Edited by neuwave
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  • 1 month later...
How are the redspots doing now more then 1 month later neuwave?

 

 

I can't speak for neuwave, but I ordered this group of 5 red spots last year from LiveAquaria:

 

redspotglasscardinalfis.png

 

I am now down to one lone survivor. I lost the other 4 one by one. They all seemed to eat well. I'm guessing it was due to aggression, similar to what other cardinalfish exhibit.

Edited by basser1
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