Chromis Question

[Grandreef 2]

My tank just got out of the cycleing and I just got 3 chromis. One is sometimes all alone and the other two are always together. The two chromises that stich together I can sometimes see kissing in front of the glass. What does this meen? Is there a difference between male or female?

 

[Grandreef 2]

Also is it okay for one of the chromises to be seperated from the others, whenever he goes near the others most of the time they do tend to nip a little bit?

 

[gildorph]

As i understand it, the kissing is actually signs of aggression between the 2. I've had 9 go down to 3 over the last 3 years and it seemed very normal for there to be a lot of conspecific aggression, chasing and nipping.

 

[Grandreef 2]

What should I do, is there anything I can do.

 

[sedor]

Sometimes when a boy fish meets a girl fish they do whats called public displays of affection :lol:

In all seriousness, chromis are known to be aggresive towards each other and kill each other off until there is only one left in the tank. That being said, i've had the same 4 swimming around just find for a long time, and whenever this topic comes up its about 50/50 people who are successful and people who aren't.

 

[Blownsvt]

i started with 6 chromis and right away i had the same issue you are describing. 5 of them grouped up with the 6th being all alone. Once that happened the 6th one was dead within a couple hours. The other 5 have been doing just fine though.

 

[Grandreef 2]

Thet seem to be schooling a lot together without any problems it is just that one of the chromis just likes to hang out be himself most of the time. Is that normal behavoir?

 

[sedor]

Its not abnormal. I had one long before I added 3 more and he always seems to kind of hang by himself. Chromis don't actually school so its not strange for them to separate in the tank.

 

[Grandreef 2]

Sorry to bother you all again, When I was feeding my fish today I noticed that one of the chromis had strange markings on him that look like someone drew lines on him with a marker. Then 5 minutes later they were gone except for a couple of white spots on his back. Should I be worried about this?