If you've been to the aquarium in Atlanta...

[calvertbill]

then I'm sure you hung out for a while watching their 200,000 gallon reef. In addition to being beautiful it also gave me a few ideas about fish communities, rockwork and coral placement (obviously on a much smaller scale.
But what my question concerns is the school of silver colored fish that I remember as being oddly shaped. In that environment they looked to grow as large as 12-14" but they were always on the move, tightly schooling, and often went to the top of the tank when the surge tank dumped it's additional 9,000 gallons.
They started me thinking about a school of non-colorful, perhaps interestingly shaped fish for my tank. Oceans don't confine themselves to spectacularly colored inhabitants and I thought they might add a touch of realism to my tank as well as pointing up the more vivid colors of my tangs and butterfly.
Any candidates?

 

[jackri]

I would go with chromis... colorful, peaceful but wouldn't take away from your tangs. Plus you can get a bunch and cheap.

 

[calvertbill]

Originally Posted by jackri
http:///forum/post/2935412
I would go with chromis... colorful, peaceful but wouldn't take away from your tangs. Plus you can get a bunch and cheap.
I thought about chromis but aren't they a bit aggressive as they grow?
The other thing is that i still have this mental image of a silver fish that was more or less butterfly shaped only with a stubby nose. Not sure if I saw this in Atlanta (I was there for MACNA) or somewhere else.
By the way, only 7 months 'til MACNA XXI in Atlantic City!
http://www.macnaxxi.com/

 

[stanlalee]

sounds like lookdown fish but I've never been so couldn't tell you for sure.

school some cardinals if you want funny shaped and docile.

and there are several schooling not so funny shaped schooling cardinals

 

[calvertbill]

I desperately wanted to display a bunch of the bow down smilies to your post but I can't find them!
It was the lookdown that I was thinking of!
Someone else suggested Monos (Monodactylus argentus) as a candidate. I looked them up and they're a likely candidate.
But the huge idea of yours is the Bangaiis. I've even got a tank in my other office in which I'm attempting to breed them, so why it never occurred to me to associate them with my big tank I'll never know.
A school of 15-20 would look great in that tank!
Thanks very much!!!!

 

[gmann1139]

Yeah, Banggai's will be a little cheaper on the pocketbook, too.
I've seen Lookdown Pilots (I think that's the full name) almost a foot long and several hundred dollars at the LFS, so unless you founded Home Depot, your tank may not be big enough.

 

[calvertbill]

Originally Posted by gmann1139
http:///forum/post/2935738
Yeah, Banggai's will be a little cheaper on the pocketbook, too.
I've seen Lookdown Pilots (I think that's the full name) almost a foot long and several hundred dollars at the LFS, so unless you founded Home Depot, your tank may not be big enough.
Actually I found a site which said they could be had for about 150 a pair but it went on to say that they'd eat anything which would fit in their mouths and take a bite out of anything they couldn't! No thanks!

 

[sean48183]

150 a pair. I had 100's of them swimming around me in the bahamas. I should have snatched some up.