blue/green chromis bullies

[Das awesome]

Is it possible to keep a school of blue/green chromis without one of them eventually bullying the others to death. I just got 6 a couple weeks ago and now I only have 4 and have a feeling the number is going to keep going down till there's only one left. I'm only asking because I thought they would be a cool cheap hardy schooling fish for my 55 then I started reading that majority of people's start bullying eachother until there's only one left. They are currently in my 55g reef with a longnose butterfly, banded sleeper goby, six line wrasse and green spotted puffer. Thanks in advance.

 

[ScottB]

I have had the same 4 in my tank for 9 months now, and they show virtually no aggression.

 

[AliciaP]

I started with 5 and am down to three. The three have been around for 2 years

 

[Reefnub]

I have had the same 4 in my tank for 9 months now, and they show virtually no aggression.

Same here, 4 for about a 1- year 1/2. I wonder if flow and feeding have to do with aggression?

I have a lot of flow in my tank and I also feed 2-3 times a day.

 

[64Ivy]

Had the same aggression problem with the common Chromis viridis variety then recently went with a shoal of the virtually look-a-like C. atripectoralis. It's still too early to tell but in the three weeks I've had the 8 of them in a 20g QT tank, there have been absolutely no issues so far.

 

[block head]

Damsels, kinda depends on the hand you were delt

 

[SOS]

IME it's all about feeding. If you want to keep a school of chromis without bullying, you have to feed those chromis ALOT. I've kept a school of 6 chromis and as long as i fed them moderate amounts several times a day they were happy. If i slowed down the feeding for about a week, one would start to bully the weakest chromis. Then if I started feeding lots again, within 2-3 weeks they would magically get along again and the skinny, bullied chromis would be allowed to come out and be part of the school again. This happens consistently. The problem is that it takes what I consider to be a shocking amount of food to keep them all happy.

 

[thor109]

I had 1 2 year old in my 75. I added 5 New ones and lost one every day until the 5 new ones were gone. I put 4 in my brand new 240 gallon and 2 months into it they are all ok. I think they have hard time finding a place to live. If added to a new tank they do better

 

[gmigmi]

I started with 13 blue chromis 2-3 years ago, i'm left with a happy pair now.