Peaceful, Non-jumpin and schooling fish that wont overrun a 40G

[gogol]

Seriously, is this too much to ask : But it seems it is easy to go wrong looking for such a fish. I have just found one so far, the royal gramma. Anyone else know of any other fish that might fit the bill ?

I am thinking of keeping just a small school of the same type of fish in my tank , (and 1-2 other utilitarian fishes perhaps). I have plenty of caves and crevices in my 60lb of rock work and really just wanted to observe a single species interact.

Looking for alternate ideas.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Blue or green chromis will do it. Maybe chalk bass.

 

[gogol]

Dont chromis get aggressive with age ?

Thanks for the chalk bass option. Definitely a keeper in the list, but alas not a known breeder ..

 

[onefish2fish]

the chromis will kill each other off one by one. honestly i dont think there are any fish that i can think of that will show a schooling behavior in a 40g, even a 100g tank.

how about 60 sexy shrimp ;D

 

[Sunny]

Green Chromis , Chalk bass and royal gramma. I have all 3 and none has tried a jump so far. Peaceful as well.

 

[gogol]

how about 60 sexy shrimp

Still waiting on the ones that you had promised to genetically modify so that they look like miniature Merlin Monroes with the tail fins of a dolphin that's bright golden in colour and smells like lavender.
Let me know once you are done. I'll get 60 of them to school in my tank.

Monroereef,
Did you try any of the mentioned fishes in schools of 4 or more?

 

[ynotme4886]

I have 3 green chromis in my tank..... they dont tend to school for me but you are more than welcome to take them and try them in your tank.

Perhaps you will have better luck

 

[reefsandrotts]

in my opinion anything will jump if chased,but if you going with mellow fish I would do 4 purple firefish and a couple of small perc. clowns.

 

[qwik]

I have 9 chromis in my tank for a while now and all is well. I think they are less prone to fighting in a larger group . Only problem with chromis is finding healthy ones . I had bought a bunch back and not all made it and then those that did were zapped by faulty pump .
This last bunch is from Will at A/O and seem to school better than the others and 9 out of 9 survived my acclimation process ,straight outta the bag into the tank . I know this is not the recommended way but if they can survive that initial shock the rest is a cake walk. ;D

 

[Hawkeye]

threadfin cardinalfish. They stay tight together and are rarely apart.

The issue again is finding healthy ones. Another issue is that it's been commented to me that they look like freshwater tetras. They are very peaceful - even my firefish chases them.

that stated - any "school" of fish will eat a lot and poop a lot - probably more than a 40G can handle. Just be warned.

 

[ds4x4]

i agree with the Green Chromis and sometimes they only really school when scared by a fish or myself. i'm back down to one due to a bad batch i got but will attempt to get another school going. my firefish schooled nicely

 

[Brian]

If I'm not mistaken Chromis aren't schooling fish, they are shoaling fish. Meaning that they will group together when frightened.

 

[gogol]

in my opinion anything will jump if chased,

So how do people with open tanks maintain fishes? I do not have the option of building a canopy.

Looks like green chromis are the best bet but they will get aggressive while breeding and the weakest one is picked on. There seems to be this interesting theory about them preferring an odd number of fishes. May be I could go with 3 or 5. I hate the thought of succumbing to another mixed species tank if the school doesnt work out.-

Do chromis do well with true percula clownfish ? I got 3 hariy mushrooms yesterday and have a largish yellow toadstool and was wondering if I could get a pair of clownfish to host either of them.

 

[ynotme4886]

If you want 3 chromis then you are more then welcome to the 3 I have.

I need to lighten my bioload anyway

Mine dont seem to be aggressive at all but have never seen them try to breed either

I have false percs and they dont fight at all

 

[mnat]

Any fish can jump, we just had a cleaner goby jump out of our 20g. I have heard of clowns and angels jumping as well. Sometimes you just get unlucky. Clowns will host anything they become comfortable with. My clowns currently host zoos in my 12g and before we got the anem they hosted frogspawn in the 30g. Juvenile clowns will form a harem with the biggest being female and the rest males. I don't know if that is really the schooling look but they will hang out together.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Anything chased can jump.
I have lost two fish in a year...firefish and a pygmy angel.
One a known jumper one not.
You can only minimize your losses by keeping the fish that are not known to jump or fish that are not terrorized by the fish you have. I am guessing that one of my tangs got upset that the angel was intruding on its territory and chased it out of the tank. That being said I never saw it happen so is just a guess.

So since then I have sworn off all jumpers but chance that something jumps is greater then zero.


Bangai cardinal fish will host a long needle urchin....if you got some juveniles that could be pretty cool.

 

[onefish2fish]

Bangai cardinal fish will host a long needle urchin....if you got some juveniles that could be pretty cool.

ive been trying to find a breeding pair to do this in my sump. this would be awesome in a display but once the juvees mature they will pair off and try eliminating all others in a 40 gallon.

 

[gogol]

Cool .. I had read somewhere that urchins in a display tank could be a bad idea since they disrupt rock work and corals within their reach once they grow big. Let me know once you are done Jon. Will stop by to take a look.

 

[Hawkeye]

in my opinion anything will jump if chased,

So how do people with open tanks maintain fishes? I do not have the option of building a canopy.

I agree with JR wohler - the same fish in the same size tank may react differently if one tank is placed right in a busy walk area and one tank is not.

Cool .. I had read somewhere that urchins in a display tank could be a bad idea since they disrupt rock work and corals within their reach once they grow big. Let me know once you are done Jon. Will stop by to take a look.

Depending on the urchin - some will even pick up your frags/snails/hermits and carry them about. I just think they are cool to look at (famous last words I know).

 

[onefish2fish]

besides being chased, the lights turning out is another big thing to cause a jump.