Royal Gramma Pairing?

[Bluecrabber]

Hey everyone,

Looking for some advice or suggestions on what would be a good tank mate or pairing for my Royal Gramm Bassett. I have a 40g breeder of which currently she is the sole inhabitant. She's been solo for about 5 months now (had a pair of clowns that died). Want to get her some new friends but I'm wondering if there are species that would be a good pair or better than others?

I've checked the Marine Compatibility Guide and was thinking about doing a goby. Also thought about doing a group of three Pajama Cardinals as numbers would help the newbies with Gramma being a bully.

Thoughts?

 

[Uncle99]

I have the following with my royal gramma in a 70g
Darwin clowns, mandarin, chromis, fire fish, lawnmower, orange spotted goby, fireshrimp and skunk shrimp.....never a problem.....everyone peaceful and happy

 

[Timfish]

Another Gramma just make sure it's not the same size. Don't add any of the psudochromis or assesor species as there's very low odds they will get along.

 

[SAT]

Agree with above... Grammas can be quite territorial against other similarly-shaped species. Mine has killed several chalk bass and will attack my hand if I get too close to its nest.

If you want another Gramma, I suggest getting one that you know is still a juvenile. If your current Gramma is female, you can reasonably expect they will get along as the 2nd matures. If it's male, however... you do NOT want two males, unless your tank is huge... one will kill the other. I discovered that the hard way.

You can tell the sex of a mature specimen by the body shape. Females are rounder around the abdomen, particularly when they have eggs. Males appear larger at the head & shoulder.

Rules about sexuality in Grammas seems to be hard to pin down. According to Deloach, females will convert to male in the absence of another male. I can tell you that my female did not do that, even after 10 years solo.

I have also heard that sex is determined as the juvenile matures, with a juvenile taking the male sex only in the absence of another male. If it's true, you can add juveniles with impunity and only one will mature as a male. However, I suspect that isn't true either.

 

[OrionN]

Royal Gramma (not Brazilian Gramma) are all bark with no bite regarding other species, but two male will kill each other in our tank. I keep them with fire fish, Orchid Dottyback, wrassses all without problem. They defend their territory with showing of mouth but that is the extended of it. Never bite any other fish. IMO, they are perfect community reef tank, and one of my favorite fish.

Royal Gramma live in harem with 1 male and 7-10 female in the wild. Male are very aggressive toward other male. In my 420 galon I would recommend keeping 3 RG in your 40 gal breeder with other fishes. A group of RG, the dominate one will turn male very quickly, even at tiny size. Lone small RG, without suppression of a male , will also turn male very quickly. Lone RG in LFS that were by themselves for a few days are all males. Put them together and you will have problem. IMO, this is the reason why this very docile fish have a fierce reputation. Put two of these together and they will fight, like fresh water Beta Fighting fish, jaw locks, tater fins and everything, until one died.

In order to get a harem, you need to have the LDS order a group for you and keep them together on arrival, then you get the whole or part of that patch. That is how I get my Royal Gramma Harem. I had them spawned in my tank. They can be tank raise. However, wild caught RG are so inexpensive that raising them is not a priority here in the US.

RG are dimorphic with with male more colorful (more purple and less yellow) than female. The Male fins are slightly longer also, especially the pelvic fins. We cannot use these characteristic to pick out males at the LFS because this only become apparent after several months after sex change. New fish that keep by themselves are all hormonal male but still look morphological female in apparent.

If you search here on RC, I posted pictures of males and female Royal Gramma somewhere in one of the thread in the past.

I can try to answer any specific question that you have.

 

[OrionN]

Two of my Royal Gramma. The male with more purple and larger in the back and one of the females in front (smaller but looks larger in this picture) with less purple. These fish (all my RG) looks identical when they first put in my tank.

 

[Bluecrabber]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Since I don’t believe there is a 100% definite way to sex Gramma (she might be Grandpa lol) won’t put another Royal in. Probably do a different fish altogether.