Green Chromis questions
 

I had always thought that Chromis were a schooling fish, and did not terrorise each other like other damsels. That appears to be wrong. I recently got three green Chromis, and have found that the bigger one terrorises the smaller ones to the point of damaging them. How he knows he is bigger befuddles me. Does anyone have similar experiences? Would it be better to get a couple more? :x :x

Hey Bob,
I had a similar experience with my chromis when I got them from Alan
We could only catch 3 of the 4. The 4th was the smallest and when I put him in my tank a few weeks later. The biggest one beat up on him for a few days but they are all good now.
Now it's just my Bangai's that chase the chromis. Go figure :roll:

I had 3 and they all schooled togeather, now I have 4 and they still hang out togeather.. no fighting or anything.. well the ocasional game of tag but thats it :lol: One thing I have notices (even with my freshwater schools) is that the more secure the fish feel in there enviorment the looser the school becomes..

Steve

i have a 135gallon, 6' long.
i had purchased 7 small green chromis.
they schooled very nicely initially.
some got bigger. some got bullied. small ones got killed.
ended up with a dominant pair, and a smaller pair.
smaller pair got bullied by bigger pair and died.
remaining pair got big. just lost the male?(BIG one)to carpet surfing, guess something startled it. :cry:
though i would have liked to still have a nice school, the pair was cool, as they would hang out in the branches of my stag, just like they do in the wild.

FWIW, i believe i had read a few posts where people were able to successfully keep a handful of them together in a single tank.

I had 7, then 6, then 5......added 4 more to make 9 and now I have 3. Most I found outside the tank. They were chased by bigger ones or a tomato clown I had.
I found when I added the second 4, they schooled away from the original group, giving me two schools of chromis. In time they merged, but again, the big ones chased the smaller ones out of the tank.

My experience is the same. Started with 5 now have 3. The first died quickly- he just never seemed to settle in. The second died a couple of weeks later. Same symptons- shortly before they died they both looked like they had a few nipped fins and even though they were part of the feeding frenzy and were getting some food, they just wasted away over a few days. The 3 left seem to be ok though the big one does nip at the other 2, plus at my 3 ocellaris. I've read that clowns can harass the chromis, but in my tank now it seems to be one big free for all. I only ever saw schooling behaviour in the first couple of days.

Not sure adding more would help. I bought 3 initially and then added another 2 about 2 weeks later. They mixed quickly but then the big guy (who came with the second 2) started flexing his muscle.

One thing to add- I never did see the big guy actually getting a piece of the smaller ones, and the two remaining smaller one are still ok. The damage seemed to occur over night.

Interesting thread- I was not expecting this behaviour either.

Ed

Chromis schools
 

Is there any record of a successful chromis school. The way its sounding here all there good for is cycling a tank. Which I of course don't agree with. However, I tried 3 in a 30 gal. One became dominant and eventually the other two died and then the big one must of died of lonliness or something.
They're a beautiful fish when the sun hits them and they're schooling. That's why I was wondering if anyone has had a successful school in a larger tank maybe.

George Muller

I plan on adding to my school when I get the 230 going.

I have a question for everyone that hasnt been overly sucessful with chromis.

- what were your feeding habits whith your fish. Did you feed everyday or a couple times a day or every second day?

Thanks

Feeding chromis
 

I fed mine once everyday and occasionally twice a day



george

Mine feed 2 or 3 times a day. Since they've been in a bigger tank, the seem to school better and don't chase each other. I only lost one since going to the 155g

In a smaller tank I noticed the same results as above. I removed most of the bullied ones before they died.

I have 10 in my 225. Some are large adults. They are still schooling well and no aggression. I feed them several times/day. Its only been several months though.

My experience has been somewhat similar...I do not have time to check any reference material and may be off base, but is it possible that we are getting fish that "look" identical yet are different at the species level? Maybe the fish can tell the difference but we can't...just a suggestion. It may explain the hit and miss experience of keeping Green Chromis specimens...I once started with 5 which quickly became 3. These three were different in size, yet showed no aggression towards one another (in a 54 gallon) and lived peacefully for about a year. I made the mistake of adding 4 more which started a continuous battel. Over the next couple of months, all but one were lost. Size of the sytem is a possible factor...species intolerance may be another....again, just a suggestion.

Trevor

I feed mine once or twice a day, though they sometimes miss a day when I'm away.

Thanks for the replies about the feeding frequency,
I thought that maybe feeding habits may have some affect on aggression but I suppose not if the fish were fed daily.

Hmmmmm. I started with 4 and I still got 4. Knock on wood of course :?

Sounds like it might be more of potential problem if there is a size imbalance, or perhaps the tank is not on the bigger size? So if they're evenly sized, or if there's a LOT of swimming room, they might behave nicer? Not sure if I'm reading into too much of the above, or not .... :?:

I think that could have something to do with it Tony.
If only fish could talk, or if only we could talk fish :lol:

I've brought this question up before and one answer that popped up repeatedly from experienced reefers was that the chromis shoal because of predation. With no threat they revert to their damsel-like territorial urges and pick on one another until only one survives. Horge over on the reef tank has a lot of experience with this species. There are two similar species in my reference book; Chromis atripectoralis and C. virdis. The difference is a black mark at the inner part of the pectoral fin.

I have C. virdis and added three to my 155. I'm down to two. The largest of the three is the one that went missing. I believe he went MIA when I added a flasher wrasse (Paracheilinus filamentosus). The remaining two are extremely timid but are nicely coloured and healthy.

I think that would explain what I saw. When first added to the tank the chromis schooled, and when I added additional chromis to the tank the new ones quickly joined the ones that were already there. Then after a few days it was everyfish for himself.

I have another question- while watching my chromis closer than usual lately I noticed one has some patchy spots on his scales, mostly near the top of this body but also in other spots as well. It's not like ich, more like a the colour has faded on some of the scales as it follows the scale patterns. Sound familiar to anybody?

Thanks,

Ed

Yes Ed that does sound framiliar.
Mine have that every few days or so and it's usually just 1 or 2 of the 4.
I think I see the discolored spots when the fish get spooked by somehting.

That is an interesting point. They are in a 36" tank. The question I asked in the original post was "how would one fish know he is bigger than the others?" They have no mirrors, so there is nothing to compare to. Basically at this point the agression has slowed a bit.

Hi Troy,

I have found that the C. atripectoralis have a lot of blue spots/dashes on the head while the C. viridis are green. Burgess's Marine Atlas has some good pics.

Chromis will school if they feel threatened. Once they no longer feel threatened school is out.

As with most fish, if they are not hungry they are much nicer, kinda like some people(me), they get grouchy when they are hungry. Feed them plenty, at least twice a day, three times is better. You also have to feed a lot at once so the less dominant fish can eat while the dominant ones have their mouths full. Chromis are an active fish and have high food requirements.

Cheers,
Tim

Bob,

In your tank there are plenty of mirrors - all 4 sides of your tank will act as mirrors if viewed from the correct angle of incidence.