Recommendations for reef safe schooling fish

[Craig Manoukian]

You could have up to 3 tangs in a 240 gallon tank according to Michael Paletta with some restrictions. Convicts are good schoolers and at 10" in adult length would not be too crowded depending on the rest of the fish community.

 

[Sascha D]

I added a group of six ORA orchid dottybacks, and am very pleased with them. They don't "school" of course, but do pal around together. At feeding time all six of them are actually out in the open at once. They eat everything offered to them, and are peaceful, but able to defend themselves.

Great choice! I absolutely love this fish and the idea of keeping multiples just gives me a warm feeling.

Have you thought about keeping mutiple firefish gobies? I have 4 in my 200g and while they do not school, they will seperate into pairs and claim territories. The best part about them is that they dont fight with eachother after they pair up. Mine even all occupy the same rock during the night hours and then seperate again in the morning.

I know they are not totally reef safe, but Golden butterflies (red sea) Chaetodon Semilarvatus is a great schooling fish if you have the tank big enough for them.

I really enjoy Bartlett anthias as well as Sunburst anthias. I prefer Blue Reef Chromis over Green but now I'm just being picky lol Check these ones out Limbaughi Chromis if you want to mix it up with some nice blues. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1720

I'm not a personal fan but Bangaii and Pajama cardinals will occupy a nice portion of the tank together.

Too bad you dont have a sand bed or you could keep a nice group of Pearly Jawfish Opistognathus Aurifrons

You definately have the tank to possess a school of Engineer Gobies. They're ok when they're small but OMG when they are adults what beauty!!! https://www.petsolutions.com/Engineer+Goby-I-124800L-I-C-16226-C-.aspx

I better stop, all this looking at schooling fish just makes me want to set up another big tank.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Chromis limbaughi are indigenous to Baja Mexico and the Sea of Cortez and are one of the more peaceful of the damsel family. Great irridescent blue color, very nice!

My Engineer Gobies grew to 10+ inches before I had to return them to the LFS. As their name inplies, big diggers and are only viewable at feeding time.

 

[Sascha D]

You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of the gobies when they got bigger eh? I'm looking for a school myself, or at least a group of fish for my 200g. Right now blue reef chromis are in the lead, but I may decided to just mix it up with different color chromis and see how it turns out.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Sorry no pics of the mongo engineer gobies. They looked almost eel like.

Good luck on your final selection.

 

[Angelscrx]

Here is a link with pics.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pholodichthyidae.htm

HTH, thanks

 

[Craig Manoukian]

For those of you too lazy to click on the link:

Now just imaginr them 10" long and as big around as a nickel in diameter!

 

[dgasmd]

I will admit I just skimmed through the thread and did not read everything, so forgive me if it has been said already.

Schools of any fish will not last in a tank. Schooling is a defensive mechanism that fish adopt in the wild to decrease the chances of getting attached or eating by predators. Any school of fish will stop schooling in a tank as soon as they figure out there is no predators in the tank. That goes for all fish from tangs to anthias and everything in between. Some fish may hang around together from time to time, but they will no school.

NEVER get any larger size fish for a tank hoping they will school because they will try to develop a pecking order from day one and will fight with each other. Look at schools of achiles and powder blue tangs, nasos, butterflies, etc. in the wild. Then look at how many times you have seen any 2 of those fish get along in a tank. It is a receipe for disaster.

Some fish that are nice to get in numbers because they may hang around each other often enough are:

-most cardinals
-green chromis
-some damsels
-anthias
-firefish
-few gobies like the ones in pahe 4 towards the bottom

Hope this helps.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

Vey good disclaimer Alberto!

I would add that Flasher (Paracheilinus) and Fairy (Cirhillabrus) make very good tank mates. A male with one or more females, as long as you do not overcrowd your tank, will work nicely and the males will display to court the females. These fish generally range from 3" to 6" as adults and a pair can be accomodated in 55+ gallon tanks, more females as the tank size increases of course.

 

[iwantone]

I have a school of 7 blue green chromis. THey look awesome as they play in the currents of the seaswirl. Blue eyed cardinals would also look killer in a long tank.

 

[Angelscrx]

I had 7 green chromis in my tank and they formed two schools but it was more like the little chromis in one group and the big chromis in the other. Now all I have are three big chromis so I don't know what happended to them all. I don't think I will buy more since I love the fish I have now and want to buy mates for my Purple Firefish, my Dartfish, and my Engineer Goby.