Aggressive Royal gramma

[jabberwock]

My Royal Grammas have both been jerks. I won't keep them anymore. My one pair of clownfish were homicidal maniacs. I won't ever keep either again.

Caveat that these were in smaller tanks, 32 gallons and 25 gallons.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Sometimes Royal Grammas get confused with the more aggressive Royal Dottybacks just in case

Compatability - Royal Gramma & halichoerses chrysus wrasse

Hi all, Would a royal gramma be compatible with a halichoerses chrysus yellow wrasse? I’ve found conflicting things online that seem to root from confusion between the mentioned wrasse and the coris wrasse? Any help is appreciated!

www.reef2reef.com

Does OP have a picture of said fish?

I still find it amazing and hard to believe that a Royal Gramma is being aggressive. I've never seen or heard of that. My Royal Gramma is the most peaceful fish ever...he never bothers anyone, and nobody bothers him...except the Coral Beauty, only when he tries to enter his cave, but even them, it's just a nudge to get him going elsewhere

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Does OP have a picture of said fish?

I still find it amazing and hard to believe that a Royal Gramma is being aggressive. I've never seen or heard of that. My Royal Gramma is the most peaceful fish ever...he never bothers anyone, and nobody bothers him...except the Coral Beauty, only when he tries to enter his cave, but even them, it's just a nudge to get him going elsewhere

Believe it. These fish can be real jerks. I've talked to several people with similar experiences. Yes, royal dottybacks have a bad reputation, but royal grammas can be bad too. Here is mine. This was taken over a year ago and he's worse now (just over 2yrs old).

 

[crabgrass]

I wouldn’t add the other fish until the Gramma is gone. A while back, my Gramma killed a Foxface…As to catching it, I’ve heard great things about the Nyos Floating Fish Trap, but I haven’t used it personally.

How is this possible?

 

[crabgrass]

I have one that was the first fish in my tank. He would boss my clowns around but never did anything bad. After putting him into a larger tank he hid about 95% of the time. I recently added a foxface and wrasse and now he is super active getting food and bossing people around. Mine seems to be all bark and no bite, but their behaviors are interesting

 

[beckerj3]

i wonder if the majority are peaceful - as per the description generally attached to them. There are definiitely some agressive ones out there though. Maybe only the people that have had an agressive one are the people that comment on them. it would be interesting to sample 100 random people that have a royal gramma and see how many are agressive vs peaceful. My tank has been up for 20 years. One of the 1st fish I got was a royal gramma. It was peaceful. But not this one.

 

[jabberwock]

i wonder if the majority are peaceful - as per the description generally attached to them. There are definiitely some agressive ones out there though. Maybe only the people that have had an agressive one are the people that comment on them. it would be interesting to sample 100 random people that have a royal gramma and see how many are agressive vs peaceful. My tank has been up for 20 years. One of the 1st fish I got was a royal gramma. It was peaceful. But not this one.

Great idea! I started a Poll.
Royal Gramma disposition

 

[Jeanette]

Update:

I've tried but had no luck catching the royal gramma. I made a DIY trap, similar to the NYOS floating trap, but had no success with it. No fish entered it. I tried feeding from there, but didn't matter.

3-4 weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and added the royal beauty and tail-spot blenny that had completed quarantine. After quarantine, the royal beauty also spent another month in my 20g tank. Initially there was a bit of aggression at the center of my tank. I have a open ended kind of cave there that my fish swim through. Also, my hammer coral is there - along with the clownfish that host in it. Its a major thoroughfare area - and when the royal beauty would pass thru - the royal gramma and the clownfish kind of looked like they wanted to harass. So I temporarily moved the hammer coral to the side and so went the clownfish. All fish are doing fine and getting along great. The royal gramma didn't even look at the tail spot blenny.

So now I decided to proceed with moving the 2 wrasse (orange back and McKosker flasher). Yesterday I added them to acclimation boxs in the main tank. Either today or tomorrow, I will let them loose and hope for the best. I'll temporarily move the hammer coral again to the side, and maybe try some other small changes to the corals/rocks. I'm also going to hang a couple of mirrors - don't know exactly where, or if it will make a difference. So, I've got my fingers crossed and am hoping for the best!