Schooling Fish

[GGtank]

Hey guys, Just wondering if anyone has any experience with maintaining a school of fish in the home aquarium (be it anthias, cardinals, chromis whatever)?

 

[SchottayB]

I've had Cardinals and they split most of the time. Same with Neons.

Harlequin Rasbora always stayed together for me (I had 18) looked nice in a planted tank.

Currently I have Rummy Nose Tetra and these are by far the best schooling fish I have kept. Always together! They are always at the front of the glass, back and forth. They never go to the back of the tank or split. So if you want to see them all the time schooling together these are the best ones IMO. But again, more you have the better the look

Thats what has worked best for me any way.

Goodluck

 

[dh058977]

SchottayB I dont think any of them would do very well in a Marine tank tbh!! lol

 

[lljdma06]

Hey guys, Just wondering if anyone has any experience with maintaining a school of fish in the home aquarium (be it anthias, cardinals, chromis whatever)?

Well, I keep a group of Serranus tortugarum, Chalk bass. Not as flashy as some of the other species mentioned above, but not without with a certain charm. They have been affectionately dubbed the "wolf pack". They are very boisterous, but they don't really attack fish. Constantly active and very entertaining in feeding time.

I've seen anthias at my LFS and they are beautiful. There is a school in their main display tank. Very pretty. More delicate than the chalk bass. I will monitor their progress for you and report back. I've heard that chromis knock off each other one by one, and supposedly chalk bass do this too, but I've had my chalk bass for a while now and have seen nothing more than mock threats and some minor chases. Also, Haha, 4 chalk bass are only a little more expensive than 1 anthias! I've always wanted a school of the Caribbean reef chromis. Stupidly bright royal blue color with a black stripe, stunning fish.

L

 

[GGtank]

Love the chalk bass, dunno why, but I do! There is about 8 in my LFS but when I was checking them out they seemed fairly stagnant. Do they swim around much or are they the kind of fish that just kinda hang in the water column?

Been keeping 3 anthias (resplendents) in my tank for the last month, lovely fish. Had 3 females initially (from a school of 5 at the LFS) but two females were relatively the same size and one kept picking on the other until it died so went back to LFS to get the male and the other female (the other female jumped behind the LFS's tank and was lost) so ended up just taking the male home to the remaining 2 anthias. All has been well since he came in, they kinda school together but they also swim all over the place! The male keeps 'displaying' to the females: (he swims in a U shape and his colours change, very dramatic) so they are interesting to keep. They dont like flake yet though but are gobbling frozen mysis. Also, at night, they all go into caves and sit on the rock, very cute.

I too wanted a chromis school but I've heard many reports of them just killing each other off unless you have very large numbers of them >8

I'll report back any fun/interesting things about the anthias. At any rate, resplendent anthias are supposed to be relatively easy to keep (only require two feedings a day).

 

[ALW]

If the tank is large enough then a shoal of Anthias would look cool