Stocking question?! school of .....

[evoIX]

I got rid of my sailfin and hippo. moved from a 55 to 75RR. figured i am EXTREMELY interested in either a Powerblue Tang or WhiteCheek (jersey wendy's looks amazing). Flame angel, pair of percs (might go with black percs), hi fin goby w/ pistol shrimp, and.... then suggestions come in.

i really want a school of fish so i may just get rid of nemo and want to hear suggestions on a good friendly school of fish. i see a lot of reefers with green chromis. but i am not that fond of them.

 

[Hawkeye]

join the club! ;D the behavior of fish in the ocean where they show schooling unfortunately does not translate here in the glass box. Even that guy with the 4000 gallon tank will not be able to get his 40 tangs to "school". Just doesn't happen like in the ocean. Oh they will school to your glass when it's feeding time but that's different! lol.

Anyways - the only fish I've seen school in a tank are threadfin cardinalfish and that's my personal experience. I have read in a book that chalk basses from the atlantic will also school - but have no exp with this. I've only seen them in a LFS once at AqOB and he had 4 of them.

Unfortunately unlike say a school of yellow tangs in hawaii, a school of threadfin cardinals is pretty dull. They almost look like fw black tetras. Plus only 2 of my initial 5 survived....(waaaah!). Will I get more? More than likely but that's just my own bizarre taste.

Chromis are great because they are inexpensive and do show *some* schooling behavior (plus the bright green is gorgeous compared to the cardinalfish). I think the best group of chromis I had ever seen hands down was in smcooler's tank. They weren't schooling per se but they were fat gorgeous and really healthy.

So anyways - my only suggestions on schooling fish in a reef tank are:
threadfin/glass cardinalfish
chalk bass
chromis (to a limited degree).

if you had a really big tank you could have a school of anchovies...lol!

 

[evoIX]

ha. thanks for the info. i figured it would be hard with my choices of fish already listed and the size tank. i saw one picture on here within tale of the tanks where they had a huge school of green chromis which looked AMAZING. i think hirobo has a tank full of yellow tipped blue damsels. just looks a lot cleaner.

a 75 with a powderblue, naso, hippo, purple, and gem tang. an easy way to kill your money but would look nice for the few days their not fighting it out.

 

[ds4x4]

alotta tang for a 75 still. i would get the Clowns and BTA or Mag if you have the lights because they are great to sit back and watch go in and out of the Anemone. Also the Flame Firefish I have are schooling when you get them all from the same place and same time.. the 7 chromis i had down there went to 2 then one died from bact infection form the fighting. the yellow tangs to school nice and the firefish/chromis brought everyone out of the rock and into the open.

/deep breath

 

[Candi]

What about several vanderbilt chromis? They school also from what I've read, not sure if they tend to be longer lasting then the standard blue/green chromis which I think everyone starts out with several and end up with one.