Schooling Firefish

[_K_E_P_]

I think I read somewhere a while ago that you can have a school of firefish. I havn't seen any, is this true?

What other cool looking schooling fish are there?

Anthias are my current favorite, but would prefer firefish:)

[SurfatC3G]

I have never heard of this but i am interested as well

[Wolverine]

I've seen many people start with a school. Then they start killing each other off until they're down to one or two.

Dave

[bigdee65]

firefish do not do well in schools as they kill off each other until one is left. Mated pairs are almost impossible to get in this hobby so your best bet is keeping a single firefish.

[IanInDC]

Firefish don't school, but stories of them all killing each other off for no reason are exaggerated too.

What the genus do is form small harems, with one male and 1-3 females. The harems are generally spacious, with memebrs only swimming close together when threatened.

Generally, these fish are kept in such small confines that even the extra females will begin to bully each other to establish their own space. Two males will inevitably kill each other off, but a male and female, in a large enough tank (my *guess* would be 36" long or longer) even a male and two females (probably a longer tank) will do fine.

The main problem is that firefish are notoriously hard to sex; you have to watch their behavior in the LFS... and that method is probably less-than-perfect, too.

[MikeA]

If I wanted to get a breeding pair of fresh water angelfish I'd buy six young and raise them till they paired themselves.

I bought four firefish and appear to have one pair. They hang out very closely together. Of the other two one is missing presumed dead the other stays away from the 'pair' and is only half the size. All fish were bought together and about the same size.

The tank has a lot of coral with nooks and crannies. The others in the tank are a juvi imperentor, hawaian long nose, xmas wrasse and four chromis (used to be five, one was picked on by everyone, lasted six months).

Sorry if this post doesn't quite answer your question but at least it's some info.

[snorvich]

Firefish can be singles or a mated pair. If you have more, you will either have one or two at the end of the weaning process. I know of only one place to get mated pairs and that is www.twilightaquatics.net

[VSpeck]

i had six in a 75gal for a year and a half till i broke the tank down 3 purples and 3 red and they always did fine but it might just be me

[_K_E_P_]

So you can't get firefish schools. Can someone say what they have or seen?

Anthias

Chromis

...

[Freyr]

My cousin has a 55 gal and he bought four firefish in the hopes that they would school, as it looked like they did in the LFS tank. He got two males and two females, but they males fought until one died. Now the remaining male and females have formed a harem and they always hang out with each other. I have never seen any serious aggression between them and there has never been any fin damage.

I think in a big enough tank a pair or trio can be okay, but more than one male and they will end up killing each other until one is left.

[_K_E_P_]

How do you tell the difference between the male and female? I have a 135G tank so do you think a male and two females would work?

[nickiwit]

I don't know how to tell the difference between male/female but twice I just threw two firefish together and they paired up. Maybe I just got lucky.

[Wolverine]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7384134#post7384134 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IanInDC
Firefish don't school, but stories of them all killing each other off for no reason are exaggerated too.

I'd say that this has been the case for 75-80% of the tanks I've seen that have tried 3 or more firefish (though arguably it's about territory, and not truly for "no reason").

Dave