Royal Gramma Question

SaltSolutions1

Active member
I just added some new tank inhabitants.

I added 3 green chromis

I added a royal gramma

I added a clown goby.

The chromis and the clown goby are all doing great.

The royal gramma hung out in the bottom right corner of the tank for a while.

Then, he swam over to the rock work and found a spot in the rocks to hide in.

Now he moved in between 2 rocks on the side of the rocks and is facing straight up. :confused:

What's going on with him? Is he not doing good? Will he die?

I purchased my new fish and corals from saltwaterfish.com

They provide a 15 day warranty. I just really like the fish. Please help.
 
I have had a Gramma for about 2 years and it does funny things like that all the time. There was a time that I went out of town and the wife swore it was dead because of the weird positions it would sleep in. I think the one you have will be fine. Just give it some time to get used to the new home.
 
My royal gramma just laid on the bottom all day like he was dead, but I still have him/her after 2 years .
 
tagging along to see how it turns out.
I just added a Royal Gramma today as well, and its doing pretty much the same thing. He wedged himself between my tank and the hob filter in my qt and was facing straight up.

Now he is just lying on his side on the bottom. hes still breathing. Hope he lives.
Good luck!
 
its very possible that they caught him under a cave. a lot of bass fish live like that, when my LFS gets a bunch in a say half are like that, and they said its normal.
 
Royal Grammas are an odd fish in that sense. They always orient their body in unnatural looking positions and wedge themselves in the rock until they settle in. You will find that he will never venture far from his home.
 
I agree, I've found my grama curled up, leterally, body almost bent in half wedged in rock work all cuddled up. If there were a sea weed blanket in there I'd expect he would have curled up with the covers. My wife thought his back was broken because of how curled up he was...

When awake mine gets hours of entertainment swiming in the return water flow. He'll stand by the hose and point upward swimming into the current and chase the bubbles that come out every now and then. The new cave it's taken for itself has maybe a half inch of space, but it wedges itself in there. It had bigger caves before the Betta came long.. He's sold that realestate and purchased smaller digs. ;)
 
royal gramma i had used to live in an old barnacle shell cluster, hed sit in it with just his head poking out before dashing out, stopping then turning around and chooseing a new shell to sit in.
 
I just thought I would give everyone an update. By the time my T-5's were about to go off and my LED night lights came on, the royal gramma was swimming freely all over the tank checking out his new home. He seemed very happy.

In the morning, It was extremely difficult to find him. When I finally did, he was curled up underneath a ledge I built in the live rock. What an awesome fish! I am very happy.
 
Awesome!
mine is doing fine now as well. he will swim around for a min and then dart back in to a rock and play dead, just lying on his side. but then will go swim around again.
pretty cool fish.
glad yours is doing good!
 
So glad I found this post...I've had a Royal Gramma for about a month. First few weeks he hid a lot in the back of the tank, only swam out to eat. Yesterday he found a large crevice in the front of the tank and lays in it, vertically. I thought he was dying, but he does dart out every once in a while. I did notice it looks like he lays so still that crabs pick at his tail. Has anyone else had issues like this?
 
Unfortunately, mine did end up being sick and died. His color started to fade near the tail and began turning white. By the time I tried to get him out to QT, he was a goner. Looking at him closer, I could tell there was some type of parasite under his skin, but have no clue what it was.
 
ours too will swim very strange the bigger it gets the less timid . we often see it hanging out upside down under the rock where our clown fish lay there eggs trying to get a snack..

but of course the clown fish are aware of its tricks .. Life on the reef is fun to watch...
 
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