Stocking suggestions for school

[NeuroDoc]

I am slowly closing in on stocking my tank. I know that I am going to have a couple of clown fish. My wife would like something that will school together. The tank is a 48x18x20, 75 gallon. It will be a reef tank with a mixture of sps, lps, and a few softies. I had thought about green chromis, but I don't particularly like the look. I am most interested in something that remains small, and will tend to remain in a small school in a small tank. Any suggestions, or is this just a pipedream?

 

[Juanfer]

I would try to buy some blue tangs cause they will get along with the clownfish, they can live in small schools, and if they see that there is not enough space they won´t grow too much!!!
Good luck!

 

[mmkeeper]

Cardinals.

 

[james734]

I would try to buy some blue tangs cause they will get along with the clownfish, they can live in small schools, and if they see that there is not enough space they won´t grow too much!!!
Good luck!

what? Blue Tangs... They might school when their smaller but will not be so nice to each other when they get larger. "they won't grow to much"? having 1blue tang in a 75 is pushing it.

 

[NeuroDoc]

I may be a noob, but I know enough to agree with James. No chance I would even considering trying to school any tang in a 75 gallon tank.

...Now maybe when I get my 900 gallon.....

what? Blue Tangs... They might school when their smaller but will not be so nice to each other when they get larger. "they won't grow to much"? having 1blue tang in a 75 is pushing it.

 

[Slickdonkey]

IME the green chromis will turn on eachother in a most murderous fashion. They have not been good schooling fish for me (this was four of them in a 75 gallon tank).

 

[balogh03]

the fact that a fish will only grow to the size of the tank is a total false fact that will never happen! sure once they get so big they cant swim any more they will die, so i guess that would count as a controlled growth. 250gallons is about the minimum for a full grown blue tang, and that is only ONE. chromis get pretty big so i would only go about three, otherwise you could get cardinals. a better small fish would be clown gobies, as they only get about 1.5". the only thing is that they dont school.

 

[Brenden]

I may be a noob, but I know enough to agree with James.

agree 100%
I have tried chromis and cardinals for schooling and pajama cardinals have by far been the best I have found.

 

[NeuroDoc]

Interesting. I was told that the green chromis will only get to be ~3" in size, so I figured I could get away with a half dozen or so. How big do they really get? How big do the pajama cardinals get?

On a related vein, what is the best site to find information on fish species, such as mature size and such?

 

[Brenden]

Pajama cardinals and chromis both average 2-3" fully grown. Liveaquaria has decent general info. Also cross check it though.

 

[balogh03]

brendon is right but, i have seen aquarium paradise selling extra large ones for $19.99 and they were about 4-5"! they were as big as my purple tang...i think they might have been some type of hybrid, i dont know.

 

[returnofsid]

I would try Cardinals of some kind. Although they can tend to get a lil' big. Blue Tang?? in a school??? in a 75???? A single Blue Tang will eventually need at least a 100 gal tank by itself. Definately NOT a schooling fish. Maybe some firefish, although I don't know about their schooling habits either. Ohhh wait...how about a school of Anthias!! That'd look awesome!

 

[Scooterman]

Pajama cardinals and chromis both average 2-3" fully grown. Liveaquaria has decent general info. Also cross check it though.

I've seen green chromis easily grow around 5" may even longer, fish will grow even in a smaller tank.
What people call blue tang & regal or hippo isn't the same fish. I've seem hippo's around 8" easily & that is big for a 125 & reef. Also trying to keep a mixed reef in a 125 would be very difficult, too much poisonous corals in a small box, even with great filtration. Personally if you going to school fish in a 125 I'd think you will eventually encounter problems, lots of problems.

On a personal note, PJ cardinals would probably be a good choice but they seem to be boring to me.
JMO take it all as a grain of salt or something of the likes

 

[Brenden]

Disclaimer: Right or wrong I am not responsible for anything in this post

Well Scooterman: I have never done a chromis study and only have one chromis. It quickly grew to about 2.5 to 3" where it has stayed for the last year.
I did a google search on chromis size and all results say 2-3" one said 3.5" So I am sticking with my original answer.
Here they are.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=115
http://www.marinedepotlive.com/green-chromis-damsel---chromis-viridis-fish--damsels.html
http://www.nano-reef.com/fish/?fish=8
http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/green_chromis.htm
http://www.fishlore.com/profile-bluegreenchromis.htm

 

[Scooterman]

yep I know that, but they get bigger than they claim, saw it for myself not in small tanks but rather large tanks like the Dallas aquarium. In the wild some Damsels get even larger as in 14 inches!

http://www.peteducation.com/category_summary.cfm?cls=16&cat=1844

 

[Brenden]

Hey Scooter want to go fishing? I getting ready to buy a new boat and I need someone to back up my story.

 

[balogh03]

i saw it as well...actualy, i saw a whole group of them.

 

[Brenden]

You can go too balogh03.

 

[jesshimom]

I have spent six months making up my mind on fish that will school and read all the older threads here about schooling fish... uhhhh I still haven't made up my mind.

Take a look at the Blue Reef Chromis. You can't find them everywhere, but saltwaterfish.com has them. They are ten bucks each. I had four and had a rough go in a tank change and lost two with that, and can't remember what happened to the others. They were very peaceful, stuck together and what i loved is that they are very very bright and deep blue and they have a cool forked tail.

Another choice is the chalk bass which is what I am leaning towards. Don't trush the ugly pictures you see, as I have seen them twice at a LFS and their colors were great - a light lilac and a reddish color. My hesitation with them is that they are boring like cardinals in that they just sit around, they are not active fish.

 

[Krish]

ROFL!! I saw some pretty big blue chromis when I went out in the boat last time that looked like they could be about 5 inches or so. Hard to tell underwater though because goggles play tricks on your eyes. Definately bigger than I thought they would get. Next time I go, I'll try and catch one (shouldn't be hard at all) and take a measurement and a pic. For now, here's the biggest one I've ever caught