Schooling reefers for 55gallon?

Hey everyone, my 55 gallon is fairly empty and I really want a schooling group of fish. Im looking to add 2-4 fish to school that are not cardinals. Please help me out here. All ideas would be great and previous experiences.
I really enjoy the anthias group and my LFS has truncate anthias on sale for 8 dollars a fish. Do they school together?

I really appreciate everyones responses, thanks

Sterling​

 

Yuppers. They love to play out front in the strong currents. You might have to upgrade tanks later on though.

 

A 55 is small for an anthias, especially for a group of them, plus you have the required feeding habits. I would suggest several blue/green chromis. They are inexpensive and known to group. Although, my experience with them is that they will only school when frightened, they did sometimes hang out together. Only get an odd number though.

 

Why is it a small aquarium? they do not grow too large, does it have to do with swimming room i assume?

What other fish would be good to school in a 55

 

Supposedly, they get agitated and just generally unhappy without lots of swimming room. Would be fine when small if you don't have many other occupants.

Would recommend oversized skimmer, large sump / refugium. Lots of food makes for lots of waste.

 

I think your best bet would be chromis. But keep in mind that with any choice, they are not guaranteed to school in your tank.

 

alright thats fair. I have discussed with the wife and we have agreed that the anthias shall be out of the question. I will take others advice, lol, hence why i ask the questions. We shall be taking a look at blue-green chromis, nice fish as well IMO. How many should we purchase, assuming each fish is 1.5inches and we already have 7 inches of fish in the aquarium.
Im thinking 3 would be a maximum?

And what about damsels? do they school? I also hear that they can be nasty little buggers.

 

You could do 3. What else is in the tank? You could always start with three then move to 5 if everything has been good for a while.
Damsel aggression depends on what species and the individual fish. I personally never had problems with damsels. But, they do not school

 

Is it bad to have only 3 though. Ive read that they do best in groups of 5 or more but Im not sure my tank is large enough to have 5 chromis with the other fish i already have. Im just looking to make a last addition to the tank and want a small schooling group. hmph.

Does anyone else have only 3 chromis in there tank?

 

I had three until last friday (i actually started with 7 but 5 dies off). check my post on dieing off chromis. Dr Fragenstein has an insightful tips on feeding!