I hate damsels

gone fishin said:
Joe your correct, I could have phrased it better. I have known folks that have kept multiple green chromis and others that could not. I really do not know the why in some cases other than just bad luck. My personal experience is in the bad luck category.
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Totally understand gone fishin. And like i mentioned, my post was not really directed at you, just an observation i have found with chromis threads. Generally the first two posts in any chromis thread are 1. they will dwindle down to 1-2 individuals. 2. Uronema doom.

I can certainly appreciate warnings being given out to new reefers etc. But sometimes i feel like we don't really go into good details about the reasons for our warnings, or our personal experiences, and in the case of Chromis, we end up discouraging people from keeping a very beautiful, plentiful, and affordable fish. There have been many Chromis discussions where there are literally two or three posts only detailing potential negatives regarding the fish, then follows the post from the OP deciding they will stay away from the fish that they previously desired.

Thanks for you response!
 
The two stars of my tank are the Odd Couple, a golden onespot dascyllus and a three stripe dascyllus...who rule two separate rock piles like mediaeval dukes. The Golden reigns over two striped gobies who couldn't care less, and a wandering blue-star, with, occasionally two chromis of the 3. The Striped rules a Fiji blue devil, an azure, one chromis, and an azure, and a royal gramma who is mostly confused. The two warlords posture and bluff---the actual dominant is the golden, probably a female, and she comes over into the Stripe territory and swags about, then goes back to her own rock. Then the Stripe does the same.

Politics, politics, but nobody even gets nipped.
 
I have 7 chromis in my 150G, they started as 8 and when I lost one I was thinking 'here we go again' but I have increased feeding to 5 times a day and they all seem to be getting on well now, have had 7 for about 3 months, they even school which I was expecting them to grow out of. I do have a group of Anthias though which may be encouraging the schooling behaviour in them.
 
My longest run w/ chromis was the same 6 for 6 years, this was in a 90g at first and then in a 180g, no issues either tank.
Mine were w/ anthias as well, but the anthia came later, and for me it seemed the chromis helped bring out the shy anthias.
I did not feed heavy or different until I got the anthias, maybe 3 or 4 years in on that particular tank.
My 6 year old chromis were maybe about 2.5-3", big for chromis but not that big overall.
My chromis adapted to the sea anemones I had and shared those nems w/ various clowns I kept over those years.
Mine kept very bright color as well.





 
kenpau said:
I have 7 chromis in my 150G, they started as 8 and when I lost one I was thinking 'here we go again' but I have increased feeding to 5 times a day and they all seem to be getting on well now, have had 7 for about 3 months, they even school which I was expecting them to grow out of. I do have a group of Anthias though which may be encouraging the schooling behaviour in them.
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Come to think of it, feedings were never mentioned before in this thread, but i feed A LOT of small feedings throughout the day as well. One of the benefits of working from home.
 
JoeVandal49 said:
Come to think of it, feedings were never mentioned before in this thread, but i feed A LOT of small feedings throughout the day as well. One of the benefits of working from home.
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I'm not sure whether extra feedings help or not, generally people say well fed fish are less aggressive though. My kind of little theory, which may be complete rubbish is that while there is a little aggression between chromis it's not the major contributor.
We've all see that they are voracious feeders and my thinking is that the weakest in the group can't get enough food to grow/improve health at the same rate as the other chromis. Obviously this is a vicious cycle, the weaker the fish gets, the less food it gets. Then any aggression towards it will more than likely finish it off. This doesn't really explain why a lot of the time they eventually get down to one, however it's obviously not the same in every case, so why do some people manage to keep a school and some can't?
Another thing that might help is the presence of a threat, obviously don't throw a Volitans Lionfish in there, but a big boisterous fish may help keep a 'pack' mentality from the Chromis, having said that, I only have a juvenile Emperor Angel as a 'large' fish and he doesn't bother anyone, so that theory may be rubbish too!!
 
davocean said:
My longest run w/ chromis was the same 6 for 6 years, this was in a 90g at first and then in a 180g, no issues either tank.
Mine were w/ anthias as well, but the anthia came later, and for me it seemed the chromis helped bring out the shy anthias.
I did not feed heavy or different until I got the anthias, maybe 3 or 4 years in on that particular tank.
My 6 year old chromis were maybe about 2.5-3", big for chromis but not that big overall.
My chromis adapted to the sea anemones I had and shared those nems w/ various clowns I kept over those years.
Mine kept very bright color as well.





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Very cool. I'm surprised your maroon tolerated them.
 
I keep an autofeeder to feed multiple times a day with crushed flake, as well as a little frozen. Sure, there's probably better 'gooshy food' to give but this arrives more often and the fish are happy.
 
JoeVandal49 said:
Very cool. I'm surprised your maroon tolerated them.
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She was solo for while, she was a fussy one for pairing up.
When I finally found a mate that she would accept that was it, nothing came near her or her nems.
I still remember sitting on the couch yelling at my chromis to not go into that giant sebae(crispa) and watching them slowly go in, guess they didn't hear me!lol
I was really surprised it wasn't the death of them.
I did not know at the time many damsels do enter nems in the wild.
 
Beautiful pix. People are allways stating on the one hand 'Damsels are evil' and 'I want a fish that schools.' Yes. They do. IF you have room enough. And maybe a cranky boss damsel that makes them think sticking together makes them look bigger.
 
davocean said:
She was solo for while, she was a fussy one for pairing up.
When I finally found a mate that she would accept that was it, nothing came near her or her nems.
I still remember sitting on the couch yelling at my chromis to not go into that giant sebae(crispa) and watching them slowly go in, guess they didn't hear me!lol
I was really surprised it wasn't the death of them.
I did not know at the time many damsels do enter nems in the wild.
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Very cool. Makes me want to get a nem for my display. I had a long tentacle and a carpet, but re-homed them when i upgraded recently. I had lost a couple fish to the carpet, and didn't want to risk it anymore in the new display, as i knew i would be investing more into my fish in the new display.

My Female maroon would never tolerate it. She will dart across the entire length of the 300g stock pond to nail my hand every time it goes in. She was also less aggressive before i paired her with a mate, but has never been very tolerant of anything else. She was actually extremely easy to pair. Accepted the first juvenile fish i added with her. She was a trade in at the LFS and was full grown when i purchased her. She is the biggest Marroon i have seen in person. Love maroons. Im considering doing a maroon/nem tank just for my pair. I would like to try a group of skunk clowns as well one day, and think they could do well in the 300g stock pond. Just need to get the maroons into a different display.
 
They are beautiful and they are characters. I had a clarkii pair that took exception to my removing their carpet nem, which was taking over half the 100 gallon tank. Ever after, they were at war with me, had square little teeth that could bite you bloody ---they didn't like the gloves, so they'd go for the arm. I finally got weary of their warfare and found them a home with a lfs that wanted to breed clowns. They were the successful parents of a whole lot of little Clarkiis---every Clarkii in Oklahoma and surrounding states may come of that busy little pair.
 
Maybe not as much as Sk8r, but I love my damsels.
I have a Clarkii, a maroon, and a Blue Velvet Damsel in my reef. They have been together for over a year. The clowns each have a nem, and 'Guido' lurks in the shadows most of the time. The smallest is the maroon and she is also the most aggressive. May need chain mail to clean the tank before long.
 
I have 4 Damsels, 2 clowns, 2 Bengal, 1 tang in a 90g and everyone's happy. I only see them chasing each other once in a while.

Damsels are eating machine! Before adding them, my Bengals were very picky eater, but after the damsels are in, everyone compete for food like nothing you've ever seen! I've never seen a cube of frozen food cleaned up so fast. Used to have to turn off my flow and all that but not needed anymore. Just dump the food in and let the hunger strike!
 
Damsels make good 'dither fish.' They're fast, and never stray too far from their holes on the living reef. If the damsels dive for cover, there's something big and hungry nearby. If the damsels are out and feeding it's safe to come out. Remember most of our fish are wild-caught, so they know damsels.
 
When I posted my first response about chromis killing eachother (2 days ago) I still had 13 of them. As of this morning I only have 9. They are dropping like flies in my tank and they have PLENTY of spots to hide (300g tank). I thought that keeping them in a larger school and in a 300g tank would help them survive. Larger school (less aggression toward any one fish) + 300g tank (LOTS of places to hide) = happy school of chromis. Right? Apparently not.
 
I'd have hoped so, too. You'd definitely think they'd have room. I see you have corals, so I'd expect they have those for refuge too. One thing that can affect them is alkalinity, and if it's low, that can trigger fights and bullying, but again, you have corals, right, so that should be ok? They are very timid fish. What other fish do you have? I have found that having a 'strong' damsel in the tank both scares them into a school and might (guessing here) reassure them of safety from outside goings-on.

Curious. I'm quite interested in your situation. Let us know at what number it stabilizes.
 
Sk8r said:
I'd have hoped so, too. You'd definitely think they'd have room. I see you have corals, so I'd expect they have those for refuge too. One thing that can affect them is alkalinity, and if it's low, that can trigger fights and bullying, but again, you have corals, right, so that should be ok? They are very timid fish. What other fish do you have? I have found that having a 'strong' damsel in the tank both scares them into a school and might (guessing here) reassure them of safety from outside goings-on.

Curious. I'm quite interested in your situation. Let us know at what number it stabilizes.
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I do have a number of SPS colonies, some zoas, and a couple of rock flower anemeones. Not to mention LOTS of rock with TONS of hiding spots. The only other fish I have right now is a Melanarus Wrasse. I did have a Sharkfin wrasse and a Lubbocks wrasse, but the lubbocks did not survive TTM and the Sharkfin died in QT.

The tank is still young and has been running for about 6 months now. The colonies have great color and fantastic growth. My params are as follows (as of a couple days ago):

Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = undetectable
Phosphates = 0.03 (Hannah checker)
Alk = 9dKh
Calc = 1420
Mg = 1300

I feed 2x daily, before and after work. In the morning I feed quality flake food. in the evening they get a variety of frozen foods soaked in Selcon.
 
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