The Chromis....taking it beyond "Green"

[dg3147]

So I thought I would start a conversation about the Blue Reef Chromis (Chromis cyaneus).

Please post your experience with them, your tank size, and of course PICTURES! I am especially intersted in both juvenille shots and views of full grown adults too. There seems to be a paucity of adults in the tanks I have seen. Is this because people don't know they exist, or because they are terrors of the tank?

Here's a picture of a young one; though, i believe they get 5-6" long as adults (vs the blue/green variety).

 

[Cantonesefish]

Sorry I don't have any blue chromis in my tank, but you have one powerful vocabulary!

 

[kentrob11]

I saw tons of these while scuba diving in Cozumel this past week

 

[Urchinhead]

I have had several of these guys over the years. They tend to be poor shippers and survival rates tend to be poor. But they add a nice bit of color and tend to be hardy if they come in healthy. Less aggressive than a blue-green chromis. They also make a good shoaling fish. But they are planktonovores so they can get bullied by fish like Anthias.

Here are some photos from my 39g before my Edison caused tank crash. I don't remember if these are individual shots of the three I had in there or three shots of one of the three...

And here is one from my new tank:

 

[JamesJR]

you have a chromis cyaneus and indeed they get pretty fair sized at about 5-6 inches. There is a good reason you don't see big groups of adults together in tanks and that is because they become very territorial with each other. They do shoal in the wild but their interspecific aggression is pretty dispersed so that no one fish is singled out. In a tank this is hard to do and often times you end up with one surviving fish out of a group.

 

[Urchinhead]

Interesting. I didn't know that. I have seen that behavior develop very rapidly in blue/green and green's but never in blue's. I had my three for quite a while before the tank crashed and while I did see a pecking order develop I never saw much outright aggression after the order had been established.

The biggest problem I had was that my male Bartletts would become very aggressive towards them. Turns out this was due to them being in the same food niche as the Bartletts and me not knowing any better putting a Anthias in a 40 gallon tank even with a vortech to keep him on a 'treadmill'. Several people I trusted told me it would be fine to have a Anthias in there. Sadly I listened and sadly they were wrong. The Anthias did thrive (got fat and didn't pace) and the Chromis would end up hiding on one side of the tank so he would leave them alone but it was still a bad mistake on my part. Lesson learned.

One grew substantially larger than the other two and was very clear the alpha fish in the group though so I am wondering if they are sexually hermaphroditic with the male being bigger than females and developing a harem like wrasse and other fish do. I never found out in my researching the fish if this was the case, though I did find out that they had a very small overall territory in the wild and that they were shoaling not schooling fish... Does anyone know?

 

[cortez marine]

deepwater blue/yellow chromis [Chromis limbaughi]

deepwater blue/yellow chromis [Chromis limbaughi]

The deepwater blue/yellow chromis [Chromis limbaughi]...also called Connies chromis is becoming available more and more out of the Sea of Cortez.
They are social, feed well and provide a neon sparkle thruout the tank.
Have a look.
Steve

 

[mpoletti]

Steve, how are their temperment?

 

[Urchinhead]

I have been seeing these more and more but as with all damsels they scare me! Any more info on them? Do they hold color or do they fade as they go from juvenile to adult?

 

[cortez marine]

They are social,

I know they stay colorful with the tiggerpods and cool new foods put out by Reed Mariculture.
Steve

 

[Mr.leee]

blue chromes, like some one said They tend to be poor shippers and survival rates tend to be poor. a buddy of mines work at a lfs, he order like 20 and only 3-4 made it...once they get pass that 2-3 weeks they are good .

 

[Elysia]

My favorite (and there are some similiar species) are the Vanderbilt chromis. Smaller, peaceful, and they have a delicate chromatic brilliance.

 

[Patroklos]

I currently have one of these in my tank...

The black and white chromis adds a good bit of stark contrast to the tank, the one I have is only a half inch right now so even if he wanted to bully someone he couldn't but as of now I have had no problems with them. My Talbot damsel of the same size gave him some trouble upon introduction, but they calmed down after a few days. Incidently my Talbot Damsel has been a model citizen as well.

 

[dg3147]

Keep it coming ---these are some great pictures! Anybody have photos of these as adults? Do the colors fade?

 

[Urchinhead]

The blue chromis don't fade. They darken a bit though.

 

[Iwishihadgills]

How about those flashing chromis? And those Chromis limbaughi are cool.

 

[A sea K]

Social with each other?, what about other fish?
I'm still trying to decide on Anthias, Chromis, or possibly a group of Cardinals. These C. limbaughi are much nicer IMO than the standard offerings of Chromis.

 

[Elysia]

Okay, keep in mind that I have only owned the Vanderbilt's. The rest of this comes from Scott Michael's Reef Fishes series.

The ones I keep an eye open for are all similar. They max out at 2.5" and have similar looks (a combination of blue and yellow), and can be kept singly or in groups of 5 or more. Chromis nigrura -- Blacktail chromis; Chromis lineata -- Lined chromis; Chromis vanderbiliti -- Vanderbilt's chromis.
Another small chromis that is reported to be durable and non-aggressive is the Blackbar chromis, Chromis retrofasciata. It only grows to 2" but it is to be kept singly. Its an attractive yellow, black, and white.
Those would be my first choices as far as chromis go.

Michael lists pacifist Chrysiptera damsels as the Azure (C. hemicyanea), Yellowtail (C. parasema), Springer's (C. springeri), and Talbot's (C. talboti.) The Talbot's is nice because it has such a different color palette than the rest of the damsels.

 

[mcliffy2]

They are poor shippers...I ordered nine, and only one made it out of QT, and he died shortly thereafter.

 

[A sea K]

Okay, keep in mind that I have only owned the Vanderbilt's. The rest of this comes from Scott Michael's Reef Fishes series.

The ones I keep an eye open for are all similar. They max out at 2.5" and have similar looks (a combination of blue and yellow), and can be kept singly or in groups of 5 or more. Chromis nigrura -- Blacktail chromis; Chromis lineata -- Lined chromis; Chromis vanderbiliti -- Vanderbilt's chromis.
Another small chromis that is reported to be durable and non-aggressive is the Blackbar chromis, Chromis retrofasciata. It only grows to 2" but it is to be kept singly. Its an attractive yellow, black, and white.
Those would be my first choices as far as chromis go.

Michael lists pacifist Chrysiptera damsels as the Azure (C. hemicyanea), Yellowtail (C. parasema), Springer's (C. springeri), and Talbot's (C. talboti.) The Talbot's is nice because it has such a different color palette than the rest of the damsels.

I had 5 of the C. hemicyanea. They bickered amongst themselves but nothing at all serious, Never really bothered much of anything else either. They all setup house in different locations in the rocks but never really swam around out in the open, which is pretty much what I'm looking for.