# schooling behaviour: cardinals vs. anthias



## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

hey......i'm after some schooling fish to round out my fish list in the new tank. I want the fish to actually school in a fairly *tight* group....not haphazardly like some chromis do...

i'm leaning toward some cardinals (longspine or yellowstriped), but i'm unsure if anthias would also fit the bill - i already have a decent sized fathead anthias and have been thinking of adding 3 or 4 more. The only thing telling me the anthias might not work is that you're supposed to add them all at the same time otherwise the established fish will beat up on the others...true?

on the other hand, the cardinals would all be added at the same time, and there's virtually 0 chance of aggressiveness, even in a large group...

which one shd I go with????


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

I have 4 of the lyretail anthias, two males, two females, but they don't really school at all. sometimes you might see two of them together but for the most part they pick their spots. (that's also on a 5ft long tank)

i had 4 yellow tangs, they didn't really school either. the best ones for me were 4 fire goby's, well they didn't really school because they didn't really swim around the tank but they stayed together.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

IMHO, it depends on the behavior of schooling you are looking for. The best that I can describe the general schooling behavior are:

Active open water swimming: Chromis do this quite well but I've only seen this in large, ie 200gal+ systems, where there is a fish "with a presence" that keeps them in a tight group. Safety in numbers as they say, otherwise they schooling is "footloose and fancy free". 

Slow "meandering group": Cardinals are a great example as it's neat to see them putter along from one alcove in the aquascape to another.

Localized schooling: Firefish groups settle in a general area of the aquascape and rarely do they meander far from where food is plentiful or good hiding spots to quickly duck into. I'll have to put anthias in this category as the behavior fits into this section.

IIRC, fathead (and similar) anthias are more solitary/territorial than the commonly offered anthias species that are found by the thousands in the oceans. Of the latter type of anthias, I find Bartletts generally form a tighter and more active school than the others and don't "perch" as often.

JM2C


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

thanks, fellas

great info here. I do indeed want that meandering style of schooling fish, so cardinals it is!


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## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

Firefish will eventually kill each other off once they pair up. 

What about redspot cardinals? You could do like 20, but your marine betta (if you still have him) would maybe eat them. I actually tried adding them once but my wrasses ate them lol.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

thanks Andrew  didn't know that about the firefish! yikes.

Would love to get some red spots, but they're hard to come by (or are they?). And yes, Leroy (marine betta) is still alive and kicking - i've had him about 8 years now 

pic from a Jap tank....*drool*









that said, i'm leaning more toward some threadfins....love those blue eyes!


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## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

I bought 5 firefish a few years ago, Eventually I was down to 2 or so I thought. I actually had 3 but one hides all the time. One time several months after the last time I saw him I noticed 3 and scratched my head. 

For a while they hang out in a group it's pretty cool.

As for the red spots big al's get them a few times a year. They retail for about $12 each I'm sure someone could order them. The threadfins are probably a better choice for your tank though.


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## deeznutz (Aug 21, 2013)

Ken gets the red spots, poor shippers, but he can do them for under $10 I believe. This is a school that I'm doing in my next tank.

As for the Thread fins, they kill each other off as well. I kept 8 of them for a year. The possibility that they were eaten is possible as well. I had a 5-6" mystery wrasse. He had not problems eating a large 3" cleaner shrimp.


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