Blue/Green Reef Chromis

[Irishdolphin]

I have 5 in my 120g and the are very peaceful during the day. The only time they get a bit snappy is when they're bedding down and want a little crack or hole in the rocks to call their own. I've even seen them snap at my clown when looking for a bed although in fairnes the clown seems oblivious to it, like a adult being bothered by a kid

 

[pontiac]

same deal here, bought 12 of em for my 150 and and after 2 years im down to 3, and I feed pretty good so no battle for food for anyone, its what every blue/green ive ever had does.

 

[homegrowncichli]

same deal here, bought 12 of em for my 150 and and after 2 years im down to 3, and I feed pretty good so no battle for food for anyone, its what every blue/green ive ever had does.

They aren't just fighting for food, males will still fight each other for territory and female breeding rights. I think your 150 was too big for hyperdominance. For it to work, you'd need so many males, that no single male could ever hold a territory. I guess for practial fish keeping, this would never work for a reef tank, simply due to all the water changes/filtering one would need to support all the bioload.

Unless if one could sex them. With breeding aggressive phelagic cichlids, a 75 gallon tank would need 2 males and at least 4 or 6 females. The dominant male would rule over all the females, and the submissive male would just be there to provide a little competition, for the alpha male's coloration. The submissive male would even run from the alpha female and hide in the school.

When my chromis are up high at the surface and in the light, I can see the male's facial markings in the actinc blue. The females don't seem to have it, but if I scooped it out, I really can't make out the markings very well.

 

[agent1923]

I have been succesful at them them via having various sizes. Usually a few big ones and the rest of them much smaller. I guess the bigger chromis are less initimidated by the smaller ones so they leave them alone???

 

[ilikefish34]

Somebody forgot to take their play nice pill. Come on guy, these folks come here for guidance and help not scolding. What in the world?

As to the original question.

All of my reading has stated that they are rather hit or miss on behavior. They tend to pic the weakest in the herd, then bully to death, then pick the next weakest.......

I put a school of 5 in my 120 SPS tank and they are kept in check by a "bully" blue headed wrass and an ornery starry blenny. I recently added a harem of 5 anthias and the chromis took the role as bullies for the first day.

They have all since settled down and are playing nice.

The chromis do tend to nip and chase one another from time to time but the comotion attracts the attention of my wrass who proceeds to torment the agressor. Its an interesting realtionship in that tank.

Best of luck with your batch of chromis.

When I first saw your post and user name, I thought I had been hacked :hmm5:... and great point about why the OP is here and what type of information they need as the comments were getting a bit snippy. When the conversation is cordial and the intentions are to truly help the OP, people learn. As long as I have been dealing with saltwater fish, this is the first time I've heard of hyper-dominance but it makes sense. Thank you for bringing this conversation back to civility.

 

[deep_sea_Dennis]

I went thru the same issue with the chromis I added a twin spot hogfish and a 6 line wrasse and they seem to keep the chromis occupied but I have lost a few over the years I currently have 15 in my 265. I am sure I will loose more but not planning on replacing them.

 

[ca1ore]

For those who have been able to keep a group of these fish for more than a few months, it would be helpful to understand a bit about your tanks. How large, aggressive versus passive tankmates, amount of live rock (i.e. hiding places), dumbluck?

 

[ilikefish34]

For those who have been able to keep a group of these fish for more than a few months, it would be helpful to understand a bit about your tanks. How large, aggressive versus passive tankmates, amount of live rock (i.e. hiding places), dumbluck?

Agreed... the members that posted having success without giving details may have achieved hyper dominance (as mentioned by homegrowncichli and other- ilikefish) and not have even realized it. A stock list of tank mates would be very helpful.

Mike

 

[Irishdolphin]

I have 5 chromis in a 110g peninsula tank along with 2 clowns, longnose hawkfish, royal gramma, diamond watchman goby, azure damsel, 2 clown gobies, carpenters wrasse and flame angel.

I have a load of live rock as it forms a large peninsula down the middle of the tank which is 4 feet long and there are absolutely loads of smalls crevices and caves which are ideal for sleeping in at night. The only times I see any small levels of aggression between or from the chromis is at bed-time when it comes to securing a crevice so I think the amount of rock and crevices might be a major factor. Oh, that and dumbluck!

 

[msmith619]

Do blue reef chromis have the same issue? I've read about this issue so many times but haven't seen anything with other species of chromis

I bought 5 Blue Reef chromis (I love that brilliant blue!) for my 55 gallon reef tank. Within 3 months I had 1.
At first I thought they were fragile and did not acclimate well but, after doing a bit of research, I would place my money on intraspecies aggression and homicide! :fun2:

 

[Royed]

I originally had 7 green chromis, and now they are down to five. They been steadily at five for about a month now, however I still see them be aggressive with each other. I have a 65 gallon tank.

My question is this: I have suspicion that the chromis are terrorizing my other fish. I saw one the main bully chromis nipping at my yellow headed goby (who disappeared shortly after I saw that...and then died eventually). I saw them nipping away at my purple tang...who has also disappeared recently and I can only assume is dead.

I purchased a mandarin the other day because I have an incredibly healthy abundance of cocopeds. And sure enough, over the last day or two, bully chromi seems to be keeping mandarin in one corner of the tank.

So I get it and I did my research, I know that chromis are naturally aggressive, but I never realised how much they would affect my other fish.