[john h]

hi all just wondering what is the SMALLEST shoaling or non shoaling fish available for the aquarium,must be reef safe.
CHEERS JOHN.

[chriss]

Neon damsels?

BUT, ime, fish only shoal when they feel 'threatened' and seek 'safety in numbers', so whilst they might shoal to begin with, once they settle in they tend to split up. It will differ in each case depending on the setup and other tank inhabitants.

Chris

[Dave.I]

I have a shoal of 16 red spot cardinals that are constantly breeding.They are a true shoaling fish and stay quite small at around 4.5 to 5cm fully grown.
Finding a healthy group that has been handled well from collection to shop floor is very very hard however.They transform the tank and i can honestly say i wont have another system without them!

For non shoaling fish i would say the flaming prawn goby or the eviota goby family.

Dave

[john h]

Dave.I, on Jan 11 2010, 10:23 PM, said:

I have a shoal of 16 red spot cardinals that are constantly breeding.They are a true shoaling fish and stay quite small at around 4.5 to 5cm fully grown.
Finding a healthy group that has been handled well from collection to shop floor is very very hard however.They transform the tank and i can honestly say i wont have another system without them!

For non shoaling fish i would say the flaming prawn goby or the eviota goby family.

Dave

hi dave, im guessing youve got a big tank , how many could i keep in a 3ft x2ftx 18in with 2 clowns,bannana wrasse,bangai and a royal gramma
cheers john

[Dave.I]

Hi John,

Not really a big tank.Its 4ft long,20" high and 18" deep.In your system i would go for a smaller group of 8 fish.One thing to keep in mind is the size of the bangai.If it a bit of a biggun it could eat them as they have huge mouths.Also royal grammas can vary from peaceful to satanic! They dont handle shipping well,hate fresh water dips and get very stressed out if miss handled.If you do find a group make sure they are feeding on whole mysis aggressively and if there are any that have a cloudy look to the normaly clear body dont be tempted as these ones are either bruised or have a bacterial problem and tend not to make it.

Dave

[Matt G]

Not a shoaling fish but then you did ask about both.

I recently added 3 Greenbanded gobies. I have always like the idea a few really small fish in the tank that you don't see very often. Haven't seen any of them in the past week though.





Not my picture but a better image

http://www.aquacon.c...eenBandGoby.jpg

[Rich]

I have the Red Spot Cradinals and have to agree with the previous, love em.

Some say they look like freshwater cardinals though.

[Dave.I]

How are they Rich? Had them very long? Are they breeding? How many do you have?