Good schooling fish?

[ChloroPhil]

Hey folks,

Two months ago I was the beneficiary of a major stroke of luck and got a 90g system free from a local getting out of the hobby. Up to this point my largest reef has been 20g and I'm still a nano enthusiast to my core. I've had a couple people jokingly say that I'm going to be keeping a 90g nano. You know what? They're right!

Now that I've got room I'm looking for a neat schooling species. I prefer small fish and Damesels and Anthias are out for husbandry considerations. Am I stuck with Chromis?

Would you please recommend some species? Corals are going to primarily be LPS/Softies/Gorgonian.

Thank you,
Phil

[Brian5280]

Cardinal fish will school. Chromis will all go their seperate ways in a 90 gallon.

[hahnmeister]

Cardinals, Rainfordi gobies, some smaller chromis will school. Fairy wrasses, and perhaps you might reconsider some species of anthias, like the sunbursts. Often time, chromis lose the instinct to school in a smaller reef. This can be true of many fish... the incentive to school to avoid predation isnt stimulated because the fish get too relaxed. If you add a large fish that is perceived as a threat, this schooling bahavior can be triggered again. Of course, this is more true of smaller tanks... larger tanks naturally bring out the schooling instinct more because of the daunting amount of space. In a smaller tank, schooling fish can get too familiar with the tank though to feel threatened... so you have to add a threat. A feisty angelfish, or even a good size clownfish thats territorial (like a maroon or tomato) will keep the fish schooling. You can even use a tang, but in general, any of the faster moving tangs out there (like a blue hippo tang) are going to need a larger tank than a 90g.

5 or more Rainfordis (and hector's) will create a small school that forages around the bottom looking for food... like a school of catfish almost. They are very entertaining, but not 'open water' schoolers like cardinals.