School of damsels

[Oxymoron]

If wanting to have 3 damsels to hopefully school in a tank.... would you need to have all 3 of the same species or could you have 3 different?

[Matthew N]

To 'school' I would think they would have to be of the same species, and personally if I was setting up a school of fish I prefer at least 5....

I think you would want to go with Chromes, which are a type of damsel fish, but I would not put them in a tank less then 36” long

[parkinsn]

Just a side note. Most "schooling" fish "school" for saftey in numbers, so if there is no predators in your tank or they dont feel threatened by anything they may not "school" like you want them to

[Whatigot]

My 5 Chalk Bass school.
Not all the time, but frequently and they are only in my 72 with 3 grammas and 2 clown gobies.

No predation there at all.

Matt, did you mean Chromis?

[justinl]

damsels are solitary and will probably tolerate or just kill each other. Chromis would "work" but they almost always end up picking each other off. CHalk basslets or cardinals would be good choices. as mentioned, something to freak them out is usually necessary; nothing that will actually eat them, but something that is considered "scary."

[Drock169]

Everything justin said and add scissortail gobies.

[Whatigot]

I don't think it's fair to tell a newb that fish will not school without a predator to "scare" them.

Give it a shot, people told me the same and I have enjoyed the schooling of my chalkies ever since.

I did a lot of reading on this in the past and as with everything in this hobby, found great arguments for both positions.

I actually have a "school" of fish, with 0 predators and they are a pleasure to watch in action.

They do not school all the time, but what treat when they do and no extra fish I don't want in my tank just because someone told me I needed it.

Damsels are a great, cheap fish to learn and experiment for yourself with, I am pretty sure you will need the same kind of damsel for it to have a chance of working though...

Good luck, make usure you report back to this forum when you try it out.

[Matthew N]

Matt, did you mean Chromis?

Yeah spelling for the win! :redface:

I do think that chromis would be ok if you kept them in a big enough group. The mistake I have found a lot of people make (me inculded) with schooling fish is that the groups are too small. Also I have noticed if the tank is small no matter how many fish you have in a group the still wont school.....

[parkinsn]

I don't think it's fair to tell a newb that fish will not school without a predator to "scare" them.

Im not trying to be unfair to a "newb", the key word in what i said was MAY not school like you want. A large tang tang swimming by may make them feel threatened even though it would never harm them. Im sure people have had luck with getting fish to school with no predators or threats. All the power to you if you want to try a school. A lot depends on the individual specimen(s) you could have 2 of the same fish ie. Hawk fish 1 eats your shrimp and the other has no intrest in them..... Again im not trying to be negative here.

Whatigot... What other fish do you have in your tank?

[Trigger Man]

Schooling fish are always a great sight to see, and I had the same question a while back. In the end I ended up picking Zebra Dartfish (if you can not find then by googling drop me a line and I'm get you the scientific name). These fish are always schooling in my tank, one note though they can jump, as I did have 4 to begin with. I tryed 10 Chromis years ago, but found after a bit they did not school anymore, as you can tell by my sig. I'm now down to just 2. As was stated they just slowly picked eachother off.

[Whatigot]

I don't think it's fair to tell a newb that fish will not school without a predator to "scare" them.

Im not trying to be unfair to a "newb", the key word in what i said was MAY not school like you want. A large tang tang swimming by may make them feel threatened even though it would never harm them. Im sure people have had luck with getting fish to school with no predators or threats. All the power to you if you want to try a school. A lot depends on the individual specimen(s) you could have 2 of the same fish ie. Hawk fish 1 eats your shrimp and the other has no intrest in them..... Again im not trying to be negative here.

Whatigot... What other fish do you have in your tank?

Already stated up there Parkinsn, just give it a read.
Also how could you know how someone may or may not want their fish to school?....lol

what are the different types of schooling?

Everyone here just wants to help out and it's important for people to experiment a little, have some fun with the hobby and see what works for you

[justinl]

for the record, I believe schooling actually refers to an aggregate of fish that swim in a polarized manner... that is they all face the same way and are synchronized. So technically we would never see real schooling in a tank. Shoaling is what we are really referring to: an aggregate of fish that are loosely associated with each other.

Ive already mentioned what I think of damsels and chromis schooling. Matt, no matter how big or small the school of chromis, you almost invariably end up with one or none over time. This has been well documented. Like I said, chalk basslets, almost any group of cardinals would work. And yes, scissortail gobies (which are actually a dartfish) would work as well; note that firefish will likely kill each other.

[Matthew N]

No worries man I didn't mean to argue with yah :smile:

[Whatigot]

for the record, I believe schooling actually refers to an aggregate of fish that swim in a polarized manner... that is they all face the same way and are synchronized. So technically we would never see real schooling in a tank. Shoaling is what we are really referring to: an aggregate of fish that are loosely associated with each other.

Ive already mentioned what I think of damsels and chromis schooling. Matt, no matter how big or small the school of chromis, you almost invariably end up with one or none over time. This has been well documented. Like I said, chalk basslets, almost any group of cardinals would work. And yes, scissortail gobies (which are actually a dartfish) would work as well; note that firefish will likely kill each other.

+1

shoaling is definitely what my chalks do with some moderate schooling but only for like a tight corner and then it's back to shoaling...
Good point on the difference between these 2 behaviors.

[parkinsn]

Already stated up there Parkinsn, just give it a read.
Also how could you know how someone may or may not want their fish to school?....lol

what are the different types of schooling?

Everyone here just wants to help out and it's important for people to experiment a little, have some fun with the hobby and see what works for you

pm'd

[tang daddy]

I would just like to share my exp as in the past had a few blue chromis like 5 and soon it was one kept finding them in da overflow dang buggers, I wanted some cool fish that swam in a group so I got 7 blue eyed cardinal fish and they're always out together or in the rock work... I tried chalk bass but it got expensive with just 3 and for some reason the 2 that are still living fight.

Blue eyed cardinals ftw!!

I want to add 10-15 more just love the colours when they are fed well nice electric blue with orange stripes very peacefull fish aswell.

[fishoholic]

I would just like to share my exp as in the past had a few blue chromis like 5 and soon it was one kept finding them in da overflow dang buggers, I wanted some cool fish that swam in a group so I got 7 blue eyed cardinal fish and they're always out together or in the rock work... I tried chalk bass but it got expensive with just 3 and for some reason the 2 that are still living fight.

Blue eyed cardinals ftw!!

I want to add 10-15 more just love the colours when they are fed well nice electric blue with orange stripes very peacefull fish aswell.

Cool looking fish. I wish I got those instead of the 3 chromis I just bought.

[AJ_77]

Oxy - any plans to keep an anemone with them?

Some cool shots here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/dascfaqs.htm
Like this one:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Pix%20Of%20The%20Day%20Marine/POTD%20SW%20Arch%2036-40/Dascyllus%20aruanus%20SIP.JPG

[Trigger Man]

Now thats a nice shoal of fish