Blue Reef Chromis question

[limpit]

I have been having for whatever reason a very high mortality rate on Blue Reef Chromis. Last time I bought 4 and 3 died. This order I bought 6 and so far 2 have died. I have all kinds of more delicate fish and am beating my head against a wall

with a fish that is said to be for beginners.
Do they ship bad or something?

 

[lawnmowerblen]

did you check the amona in your tank?last time i had a bunch of snails that died and the amona was toxic i cant beleave my blennie lived!did you check the salt in your tank?

 

[limpit]

All of my parameters are good. These are newly added fish, not ones that have been in the tank for a while thats why I asked if they were difficult shippers.

 

[girlina4x4]

I saw your youtube video on water changes a few months ago! Theres actually a link to your video on this website somewhere lol. I love all your tanks. I assume you are putting them into the 90 gallon? Have you bought all of them from the same source? Maybe they were already sick when you bought them? The only other thing I can think of is adding them all at once caused some stress

. You probably know a lot more than me considering you've been doing SW since before I was born!

 

[sman]

Chromis have a history of just radomly dieing, its very weird.

 

[limpit]

Originally Posted by Girlina4x4
http:///forum/post/2733031
I saw your youtube video on water changes a few months ago! Theres actually a link to your video on this website somewhere lol. I love all your tanks. I assume you are putting them into the 90 gallon? Have you bought all of them from the same source? Maybe they were already sick when you bought them? The only other thing I can think of is adding them all at once caused some stress

. You probably know a lot more than me considering you've been doing SW since before I was born!
Ya, those are my videos.
I bought the chromis from SWF.com twice now with the same mortality rate loss.
The fish are going into a QT tank and not my main display.
I do a proper drip acclimation and I have not had issues with the other fish in the QT tank, just the Blue Chromis.
I think that for some reason they are difficult shippers, if fact I saw on some other livestock website that they do not guarantee Blue Chromis like they do other fish.

 

[vampofvegas]

I ordered a BR Chromis from here and it was DOA. =(
Delicate shippers I generally try to get my LFS to purchase for me so I can make sure they are alive while transporting them home.

 

[windlasher]

Originally Posted by Limpit
http:///forum/post/2734453
Ya, those are my videos.
I bought the chromis from SWF.com twice now with the same mortality rate loss.
The fish are going into a QT tank and not my main display.
I do a proper drip acclimation and I have not had issues with the other fish in the QT tank, just the Blue Chromis.
I think that for some reason they are difficult shippers, if fact I saw on some other livestock website that they do not guarantee Blue Chromis like they do other fish.
I have had many chromis die like this. After discussions with several experts, I believe it is the cyanide they use to capture them. It stuns them so they can be netted, and they usually recover, but only for a few weeks.
AND, BEFORE I GET POUNDED ON...
One of the guys I discussed it with grew up in one of the areas where they capture them and this is what he told me. They now keep the Chromis in QT for several weeks before putting them out for sale. If they survive for two or three weeks in QT they know they will be OK. As the place you order from how long they QT them.

 

[1journeyman]

Chromis are very active swimmers. They need a tank that is well fed. My experience and theory is that most people keep Chromis in tanks where they slowly starve.
A very productive and large refugium does wonders for keeping these fish.

 

[aquaknight]

Wierd reading everyone's input. We just moved over 20 of my parents fish (ranging from 5 years in our care to a couple months) to my house (will be doing threads later) Saturday, and we only had one casualty, a blue reef chromis. We'd had him for over 2 years and he didn't make the 4 hour drive. This is the only fish I've lost (over 40 fish total) still in the bag, on one of my Ft. Lauderdale-Orlando drives. Sure, some fish have died after going into the tanks, but never has one died in the bag after only 3 or 4 hours.
Which is in stark contrast to a pair of chromis I keep to keep my QT up and running, who never get drip acclimated when they switch tanks, etc...

 

[windlasher]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
http:///forum/post/2734613
Chromis are very active swimmers. They need a tank that is well fed. My experience and theory is that most people keep Chromis in tanks where they slowly starve.
A very productive and large refugium does wonders for keeping these fish.
I think the thing is most of them die within a day or two after getting them home. Surely they will not starve to death in a day or two. I lost several orders totaling more than 30 before I gave up on having my little green school of fish.

 

[guyerson]

I've lost a number of these over time as well. I had a school of five to begin with - I lost two of them rather quickly and the other three were doing fine for several months. I'm now down to two and it has been that way for a while.. Not sure what it is with those fish..

 

[m0nk]

Chromis are related to damsels and can get aggressive if kept in even numbers, and numbers lower than 7 (from most anecdotal evidence). I tried 3 once and they killed each other until only 1 was left. They I tried 3 again in a much bigger tank and they were still rather aggressive, so I went to 7 and they get along a lot better now.