Problems with Chromis...

[mahalamata]

I really love these little fellas,
they might not be the most expensive and or exotic,but for me there is nothing more appealing than a little school of flashing green/blue fish swimming about!
now to my problem...i have tried to keep them on several occasions but with not much success!the procedure is always the same:

an hour or so to acclimatise
lights out when i release them
temps and parameters always within the acceptable.

but for some reason they seem to always die off,which is strange because my other fish a corals seem to me doing fine!

i have tried them in pairs and in schools of 4,i have tried the green and the blue chromis but still ....

can anyone tell me if i'm doing something wrong?is there some sort of husbandry details i'm missing?or some trick to keeping these lovely little fish alive?

any advice or comments are very welcome , because I'm setting up a new tank and would like to keep chromis in it but reluctant due to my past failures to do so.

 

[dvmsn]

They don't ship well. Even if you get healthy ones they will eventually become territorial against each other over time and will work their way down to one or a pair. Sorry. Try threadfin cardinals. They will truly school.

 

[mahalamata]

thats a shame...thanks for the info!
shame also that the threadfin aren't as pretty.

will bangai cardinals be ok if i get 2 or 3?they look pretty cool

 

[dvmsn]

They are prettier once they settle in, but they don't have much personality.

 

[block head]

bangaii's would have to be paired up ,two males will kill each other, might get away with 2 f 1 m, almost impossible to tell diff between m/f. best bet, buy three . 75 % chance 2 will pair up,return /sell the odd man out.