blue/green chromis

[mauler]

I want to add a small school of 5-7 chromis to my tank but all my research ends with people saying they either do great in schools or they kill each other till there's one or two of them left. Does anyone here have experience with them? If so how many did you have? How long did you have or have had them? And what tank mates were or are with them?

 

[jay0705]

Started w 3 now have 2. Black clown, fire fish,2 green mandarins, scooter blenny,6line wrasse, yellow watchman goby and a purple pseudo. They are aggressive w each other

 

[bang guy]

I had 7 for about 8 years. Then they started to disappear one by one.

 

[mauler]

Did either of you find out why you started losing them?

 

[bang guy]

Nope

 

[mauler]

Did they all disappear

 

[bang guy]

yep

 

[mauler]

Well that doesn't sound like they killed each other sounds more like something ate them. But I think I'm gonna try a school of chromis and see how it goes

 

[jay0705]

In my case it just seemed one was more aggressive. Iam down to 1 now lol idk what the secret is to keeping schools

 

[bang guy]

My understanding (which is ancient) is they set up a hierarchy with a male at the lead, two females, and a bunch of ungendered. The male must constantly harass the two females to prevent them from becoming alpha. The females must continually assert their dominance over the rest to prevent them from turning female.

So if you think about it, if there are 4 then the single ungendered is getting a LOT of attention.

Often I think Chromis are purchased after they have already changed sex. That can never work if you get more than 1 male or too many females.

 

[candaceswf]

That's really interesting, I always figured they were perfectly fine in schools and didn't bother eachother.... learn something new everyday

I haven't kept any chromis yet, but I've thought about getting a few of the blues

 

[jay0705]

My remaining chromis goes head to head w my black clown. The sucker bites me! Lol so there not as peaceful as most think, but they dont bother other fish

 

[mauler]

I picked up 5 of them last night and they seem to be schooling pretty well so far.
I don't think there's such a thing as a peaceful or aggressive fish any more I think it's all personality now since I put these chromis in when I did my red tail trigger tried eating them and he's supposed to be one of most peaceful triggers and Picasso trigger didnt even look at them.? But anyways I hope I only have one male

 

[jay0705]

Ha ha ha , I like triggers but there still a trigger. Which usually means anything is food if the mood strikes.

 

[jay0705]

There is a hum hum at a lfs I go to, very personable but still small. I just know tho at some point all hell could break lose if I got um

 

[mauler]

Ha ha ha , I like triggers but there still a trigger. Which usually means anything is food if the mood strikes.

I know he's a trigger but all my research pointed to him being reef safe and peaceful and he's a liitle 3" piece of evil he'll bite me ever time I put my hand in the tank while my picasso is pretty much a puppy the nicest fish in my tank

 

[jay0705]

Lol there triggers. Alot does depend on individual fish tho

 

[mauler]

Nope I just have the only mean red tail trigger

 

[aduvall]

I have had 0 luck with Green Chromis.... They would fight with one another, and they pick up a disease (forget the name) quicker than other fish. I've had a clown for 1 1/2 years, Hoevan's wrasse for a year, Bengai Cardinal for 1 1/2 years, in that time I lost 4 Chromis, started over and lost 5 more... Maybe I just suck at them.

 

[jay0705]

Same, idk what it is w them. I have one left and seems to be ok but we shall see