Bought 5 chalkies about 7 months ago, still have every one...
super cool, super peaceful fish, they form a hierarchy where the biggest fish gets the highest up hiding/sleeping spot in the tank right down to the smallest darn near under the substrate....
and they school from time to time, but its sporadic.....lots of shoaling though.

Them and my grammas are so cool to watch and I have not lost any of these basslets to the hardwood yet, and it's been a good while.

So do you think 5 would be pusing it in a 50 gallon? Total system volume will be damn near 150 gallons...

in all honestu, I wish I had bought 10 for my 72.

They fight a bit for the top spot or at least for the spot higher up than they are but other than that, these guys have never shown aggression to any of my other fish nor one another.

I bet 5 in a smaller display system would look sweet and I doubt you would have any aggression issues other than the norm.


Can you see the chalk bass?
just one of my fave chalkie pics....
crappy pic, sweet fish...lol
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...quapics016.jpg

well, I think I'm sold LOL

just watch out...lol
I paid 22.45 each for mine and then saw them at an abby reef shop for 14.99....

Red Coral is pretty decent priced, so I'll probably see if I can order them in through them. Thanks again

My tank is open topped when I am home (quite often as I work from home right beside the tank) and has a screen cover (window screen) when I am not and all night. I just put the screen on before i go out or to bed...its habit already. I had a puffer jump after owning him for 3 years a while back and vowed never to do open topped again. I did it again obviously :( But I am trying to lessen the chance of anyone jumping.

It just takes one quick, little fight for it to happen and I am willing to bet if you have the tank set up for years, it will. Everytime. Just a matter of time. It took three years with that last tank.

So some days if I am out all day, the screen will stay on the tank and light will be blocked a bit but oh well...kind of like a cloudy day on the reef. Its window screen to keep bugs out so NO fish can fit through. Would even work for eels.

The nice thing was that you just buy the frame in length and cut them to fit the tank. Its super easy to make a quick custom cover. Takes maybe about 15 mins. max.

Good luck!

BTW, I had chalk bass in the past and they all jumped at some point either up into my canopy or would jump and hit the lights :( Didn't do it often but over a few years, they all seemed to jump. Only 2 of the 6 died but still...if I didn't have a canopy, all of them would have.

I would bet you had much more aggressive tankmates than I ever did.

Thats the key IMO, careful selection of inhabitants to make sure that there is as little chance of aggression as possible.

Sure, you're never gonna be 100% jump free, but thats no what this thread is about.

so technically, according to what you're saying, if I keep with one species and provide lots of nooks/crannies/mini territories they should be less likely to jump.

Its simple. Fish jump for various reasons and if you have an open top, you have to accept the fact that you will loose a fish or two over the years. There was a thread about this on RC a long time ago that got really long and probably 90% of people with open tops had lost fish unless the tank was only set up a few months. There was everything from triggers to tangs to chromis jumping.