Do green chromis kill eachother in schools?

criticle

New member
I turned on my lights this moring to find, one of my three green chromis on the sand dead. I saw an injury in front of his dorsal fin and theres nothing else in the aqaurium to hurt it. Is it common for chromis to attack eachother in schools?
 
This happened to me when I had 3 in a 29g tank. They picked on the smallest one, it died. Then the bigger one left picked on the smaller one until it died. This happened over a period of months though. If yours are new then the death might be due to other causes.
 
three chromis is not a school. i'd say that the MINIMUM number for a school would be 6 however i'd go with about 10 for a nice school. take the remaining chromis out and return it or add 4+ more.
 
Occasionally they do. I had a group of nine and one, by one, three were singled out and killed. The remaining six are fine.

There was a thread not too long ago about this and some people had zero problems and others had the same experience as I did:)
 
I think most descriptions of Chromis are wrong, they seem to overlook they aggression they can and will show towards their own species at times.

Almost every description says they are a "peacefull schooling fish".

My blue chomis is anything but that. Not only will it go on a rampage towards other chromis, but it is pretty aggressive all around.

I think that as juveniles and packed together they might be, but full grown and in a medium sized aquarium, not at all for me.
 
what else is in the tank with them?

schooling is a defensive response to potential threats. if there are bigger/aggresive fish in the tank the chromis will rely on the school for a sense of security. if there are no potential threats, the "school" may turn on each other...

at least that is my understanding...
 
I've had 8 grene chromis in my tank for over 2 years. I have always had huge problems with acclimating chromis and have probably seen a 30% loss rate in my two tanks within the first 2 weeks. They will develop pink fleshy spots on them and die almost within a day of getting the spots. Once they make it through the first 2 weeks though, I have never lost one that didn't jump from the tank. I think it has to do with poor capturing techniques and shipping techniques. Afterall, how much care do you think they take of a $5 fish. I do not have these problems with any other fish I have aquired and tank parameters are perfect on both of my tanks.
 
I've had the same 6 chromis for over 4 years now w/ no problems.
Model citizens, and help bring out shy fish.
Mine have even adapted to enter both my nems.
 
None of my blue/green chromis in a year have been lost due to agression. One died in qt and one jumped. Now im down to 7.

they have never attacked each other that I can tell.

They did school a lot more before I removed a grumpy 3 stripe damsel. Now they hang out in my corals and school during feeding.
 
There's no question they can be aggressive and territorial to each other. I've noticed that the fighting is considerably lessened when I feed more in volume and frequency.

Allen
 
I have 6 blue/green chromis in 3 years now and yea, they are model citizen in my tank. my mandarin was really shy and like one posted above, it brings out the shy fish. I do see they chase each other once in a while but not bad. they stop chasing after a foot.
 
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