blue green reef chromis kissing?

Matthew91

C₈H₁₀N₄O₂
The other day I had noticed that two of my chromis were kissing? each other. They did this quite a few times. What kind of behavior is this?
 
I'm pretty sure that's actually how they fight. How many chromis in that 54 gallon? They tend to fight until there are only one or two left. I hope I'm wrong, though.
 
There is six. I know they should be in odd numbers but my lfs had a deal 5 chromis for 10 bucks. So I couldn't pass that up. I had one small guy already established in the tank
 
Crud... I guess I will see what happens. I would try to sell them back but I doubt I could catch them all. Hence the name given to my first chroms, Bullet was his name
 
There is six. I know they should be in odd numbers but my lfs had a deal 5 chromis for 10 bucks. So I couldn't pass that up. I had one small guy already established in the tank

As far as i know , fish can't count. that being said, even if they could count or even tell odd from even wouldn't that only put one poor fishes life on the line ? I mean even minus 1 = odd right? .... the fact is the two fish kissing was two fish trying to suck the life outta each other.. it's what chromis do .
 
We have a pair that does this as well. We Bought a total of 9 of them first it was 3 as a group then 4 as a group.. To get them to stop fighting. Very hard to do . But Catch the most aggressive 2-3 of them Put them each alone in a tank by them self. Again hard for most people. Then once the others are established in the Display tank introduce the ones you removed one at a time over a few days. We lost two of our 9 when we put them all in there together. NOW the 7 we have are happy and Do not bother each other for the most part. They are amazing to watch swim together. But like everyone else in here has said If you put a group in the tank together it will be a battle to the Last one Standing usually. And also before you have them Keep another larger aggressive fish that will chase after them from time to time. Chromis will group together instead of fighting if they are on the defense .
So you can have a group of these. But you MUST Introduce then correctly to the tank Sorry to pull this post foreword I was just browsing chromis mating online and seen this. I think ours are acting like they are trying to spawn which i think is rare in a reef tank.
 
I have two in my 225g that have literally been together for 5 years. They were in my LFS show tank for 3 years, and I have had them in my possession for 2 years. To my knowledge, they have never been around any other or a large group of other chromis. Just the two of them in every tank they've been in (except at the distributor)...

I say all of this to say that two chromis in a 225g will still bicker over hierarchy every now and then. Mine do the kissing thing all of the time, but I have very rarely seen any outright aggression or fighting between the two though it does happen on occasion. The reason I equate this with fighting is that the kissing will happen without a fight most of the time. But when they do swipe at eachother, it is both lead by, and followed up with aggressive "kissing" so to speak. So, they kiss without fighting, but never fight without kissing...

It's a little weird because they follow eachother around feeding together, sleeping together, hiding together, etc...

Also: I've never considered adding any additional chromis to my tank. My tank could probably support a few more, but these seem happy enough with just the two of them. I wouldn't want to risk adding chaos into my tank by adding more chromis. It may work, but it may not. They seem to be able to thrive under their current conditions, and haven't killed each other or even excessively bullied each other for 5 years at least. Don't want them to start now. LOL...
 
I also have a 'kissing' pair in my 265 that appear to have arrived at some level of equilibrium in their efforts to kill each other. Rather a bland fish though - never really sure what the appeal is.
 
For me this is the appeal, 2 years w/ this group and they still hang just this tight, and shoal w/ my anthias, no aggression.
This is my 3rd long term group, longest group of 6 lasted 6 years(hogwash to odd or even)
People do have varied results and opinions obviously, and it's funny, I see local peeps all the time keep them too, they just seem shy about talking about it on here since so many are so adamant towards their inevitable pecking off.
I obviously disagree that always being the outcome.



 
As for odd/even... When you have smaller numbers, odd numbers tend to kind of look a bit more natural. That's probably why people suggest it. Of course, if you have 20+ fish, it becomes nearly impossible to see just how many fish are in there.
 
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