36g to small for schooling chromis?

Raibaru

New member
I'm still in the planning/development stages of my first tank and I want the primary fish in the tank to be my clown pair. A Black Percula and a Oscellaris Percula Clown. I am also planning on getting a Fire Angel.

My question is I want to get atleast 1 or 2 fish tghat will remain fairly active in the tank and swim around whereas the Angels and Clowns may perch for the most part.

The only fish that I could think of that was "free-swimming" were chromis. But if I have just one, wont it just hang out with the other fish?

So is a 36g to small for say a trio of schooling chromis? And if I get 2 or 3 of them, will they still tend to stick by the other tank inhhabitants? Or will they get a personality of their own?

Any suggestions for other fish that will spend less time hidden by the rocks and more time swimming about?

Also is 6 fish going to break my tank?
 
From my experience the chromis usually stick together but do their own thing until feeding time. I bought 3 of them about 2 years ago and two of them died off but the one remaining really just keeps to himself. They absolutely do NOT tolerate harassment by other fish as I found out. Make sure they get enough food and vary their diet and you shouldnt have any trouble. You should definitely think about getting a bigger tank and more live rock in the future though for the benefit of the angelfish. If I were you id stick with the two clowns, and the 3 chromis until you get a bigger tank unless of course you have a really good filter setup and a protein skimmmer. Too many fish in a small tank could definitely put a hurting on your water quality in no time. Its really hard to say though unless I know what kind of equiptment you have.
 
Yea, I only have an AquaC Remora skimmer. I figured as long as the fish stayed pretty small and kept it to 5 or less I'd be good. Was having second thoughts about the Angel from the get go because they nibble on corals and such.

I am a bit concerned about the chromis too. Seeing as how this is a small tank I want all of my fish I do have to have good contrast and the big draw to the chromis was their personality. Not sure I want to get so many similar fish :(
 
I hate to say, but they're more likely to do one another in, due to small tank size, and they actually don't school unless frightened [my blue velvet damsel used to provide free terror in my 100g]. WHat I would recommend is a single blue chromis: they're just as busy, the dominant in the school is always brightest, and so is a single, and you'll find he's all over the place, all the time. Max 2-3, but fewer will be happier.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8139708#post8139708 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
I hate to say, but they're more likely to do one another in, due to small tank size, and they actually don't school unless frightened [my blue velvet damsel used to provide free terror in my 100g]. WHat I would recommend is a single blue chromis: they're just as busy, the dominant in the school is always brightest, and so is a single, and you'll find he's all over the place, all the time. Max 2-3, but fewer will be happier.

Oh really? See I dont have many books on anything but clowns since those have been my intent for some time now. All I go by are the short descriptions available on the various sites and almost all of them say the chromis are schooling fish.

I've also never seen anything but the green variety locally so I'll have to keep an eye out.

Any other fish beside chromis that swim a lot and are fairly active?
 
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