2-3 shoaling fish

[dnsfpl]

planning to keep 2-3 shoaling fish

citeria: peaceful, actively swimming in open

shortlisted bartlett/blue eye anthia, blue reef chromis, purple firefish

any other suggestion?

is it possible to keep a group of mccosker's flasher wrasse?

thanks

[vt_snowman87]

from what i know, firefishes do not shoal well.. they will develop a pecking order and hierachy, and u will eventually be left with a pair, or 1 dominant one..

[straydum]

is it possible to keep a group of mccosker's flasher wrasse?

something i've always wanted but couldn't achieve due to my small tank

maybe it could work if you had 1 male with 2 females, or rather i think it should work. but personally i find it hard to find female wrasses though

[dnsfpl]

its hard to determine female mccosker's, at least for me

possible for an alpha male with 2 male but i feel so gay

@vt_snowman87

will try to keep a pair, and hope for the best

[straydum]

its hard to determine female mccosker's, at least for me

possible for an alpha male with 2 male but i feel so gay

3 males won't be peaceful shoaling group. maybe you could try 1 male with 2 smaller individuals who are still at the undeveloped male/female phase

[MarcoVan]

cardinals generally will school better than chromis or anthias.

However if you do not have a BIG fish like a fierce wrasse, a pbt, an AT etc inside the tank, cardinals will also not school. They will merely swim around the tank in small groups and act bossy with each other.

but if you got a big fish like mentioned, they will stick closer together and hover around or near their home and you get a schooling fish!

Anyway you can check our Irwana near their SPS pond. Nasri recently threw in a sizeable number of blue eyed cardinals into the tank with a PBT and they schooled! but like mentioned, stationed around their home (:

For further information, please contact our fish gurus ie LemonLemon and Digiman. It was Lemon who told me about the big fish-schooling fish theory (:

[yikai]

nice thread.

ok here's some help.

firefishes will never school in our tanks. they are solitary fishes in the wild and live only in mated pairs. during feedings, they form temporary groups to feed but still, only exists in pairs. so keep only one or a pair of firefish. this applies to most dartfishes.

chromis will not school well in our tanks. neither will cardinals.

for cardinals, the best will be blue eyed cardinals (Zoramia leptacanthus) or the red spot cardinals (Apongon parvulus). The latter is difficult to sustain. needs many feedings and they get scared easily. blue eye cardinals are the best.

for best schooling results, yes like what bro marcovan has said, is "safety in numbers". a group of cardinals being kept in group by a larger more intimidating fish like a tang, angel or butterfly will do the work.

think of it like a sheep dog herding a group of sheep. with the dog around, the sheep gather in a tight group. without the dog, the sheeps disperse, and for cardinals, that's when the pecking order kicks in and the dying one by one starts kicking in.

for mccosker's flasher wrasse, keeping a group of males is possible. Most flasher wrasses are peaceful and keeping multiple males of the same species will not hurt. they do not actively chase and kill like most tangs. at least that's unlikely. instead, they will flash and chase each other and display. it's nice to see but it's not peaceful schooling and the chasing could result in jumping so you need a hood.

you could keep a harem of wrasses instead. multiple females do very well together and one male to herd them. you can watch as the male participate in nuptial display as it flashes and attract the females attention.

this works for fairies and flasher wrasses. but finding female flashers and fairies are difficult since they are uncommon.

so i hope my lengthy and boring explanation helps u in picking out a scooling fish

[dnsfpl]

thanks for the detailed explanation lemon

based on wiki

In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be shoaling, and if, in addition, the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are said to be schooling.

it is impossible for fish to school in a small aquarium

that is why i am searching for shoaling fish, group that stay together most of the time

if i keep 3 male mccoskeri, will they stay in group?

is it better to keep P. carpenteri, P. flavianalis and P. mccoskeri, 1 each instead?

thanks again

[iskay]

Razorfishes will usually stay together but they are difficult to maintain.

[Bulldozer]

Lemon Lemon ..... any views on a Harem of Flame Angels?

Anybody has experience to share and let us view nice pics or videos ?

Thank you ...