Do you even Chromis Bro?

[ReefParadox]

I have 6 blue green chromis and 4 blue caribbean reef chromis in my 365 gallon along with 6 tangs, 4 wrasses, 2 zebra bar gobies, 2 staghorn damsels, a copperband butterfly, a male lyretail anthias and a couple blennies. If you want to keep bar gobies you must have a lid because they jump even more than wrasses do. The blue green chromis do school pretty well especially in the last hour before lights out, the blue caribbeans not nearly as much. They are all pigs when it comes to eating and I like to keep my fish fat, much less squabbling between all fish when they're not competing for food. I cannot keep female anthias alive, they need to be fed 3 or 4 times a day and I never have had good luck getting the females to eat. Plus you can buy 20 chromis for the price of 3 or 4 anthias. If you really want 15 chromis I would buy 2 groups of 9 or 10 and you should end up with around 15. Even the healthiest of specimens will have a few casualties due to illness or being picked on. Again I think keeping them well fed is key to minimize squabbling, eventually the males and females will establish a pecking order and become a school. If you quarantine be sure not to crowd them as this seems to increase the mortality rate. A school of blue greens swimming in the upper water column under Actinic lights in the evening is a beautiful sight!

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

I have three. They do nip at each other a tiny bit but all animals in groups do. They’re in a twenty gallon high. Perhaps you should try getting a large one and a few smaller like I did.

 

[radar_17]

I don't know if it's tank-size dependent, but I currently have a dozen. I have a 120 gallon mixed reef with plenty of places to hide from the dominant male. I've even had them spawn several times. I started with 4 (from Vivid Aquariums) which I've now had for 5-6 years. Then added 4 more last year (from Live Aquaria) with no problems (put the newbies in an acclimation box for a couple of days before introduction). I added 4 more again last month (same acclimation, this time the hand-netted ones from Unique Corals) and so far not a single loss. All are eating well. I think having that many to distribute the aggression of the dominant male and having tons of hiding places helps. They do shoal together in the evenings when I have a 2 minute alternating pattern on the WAVs.

 

[iReefer12]

In my 220 I have 6 blue chromis, I started with 11 in 2013. It seems this group has stabilized and sorted its hierarchy out. I’ve been at 6 since 2016, they even spawn now.

 

[Ridgeway]

I've just added 15 Blackbar to my frag tank that will go into the display tank in a couple of months. They are quite different vs classic the greens (Chromis viridis) Short video here:


A much less boisterous fish that i think would suit many reef aquariums

 

[greekspec2]

10 in a 37gal for 7months no

 

[zalick]

I love Chromis because I spent a lot of time watching them in the wild growing up (my family are from Mauritius). They definitely do 'School' in the wild, but they school in very large groups, upwards of 500 fish at times and are very active on the reef, and feeding regularly, even then they seem to squabble! In our tanks that becomes a greater issue.

Even so when started my first Reef I had to have these fish due to them being a large reason I fell in love with coral reefs as a kid. I started with 5 in a 60G about 3 years ago, and now have only 2, these two get along well but with a very definite dominant fish, they do swim together almost all the time though and would love to have a larger group in a bigger tank one day. But as has been mentioned on this thread already its very hit or miss, but definitely can be done.

In my personal experience they do better and fight less when they are fed regularly (4-5 times per day), are housed in a large tank and have also found that they are calmer when fed small live foods (copepods etc) regularly as this stimulates their natural feeding responses.

This is the best description IMO.

They use aggression by nature. Not an issue in the wild due to agression spread out over hundreds of fish and plentiful food.

In a reef tank, numbers help, but generally it just prolongs the deaths. The smallest one dies of starvation. BUT if you can keep them all fed, they can survive.

That's what I've learned from seeing them in the wild diving and tons of reading and discussions with people who've kept chromis.

Same thing applies to Cardinals, from what I've researched.

Anthias seem to be the best bet for shoaling fish. They are prone to uronema. I had 8 die in QT from it. Will try again but treat for it prophylactically.

 

[Manny Tavan]

I started with three two years ago and I still have the same three. One is the boss but the other two can stand their own

 

[Deezill]

This is the best description IMO.

They use aggression by nature. Not an issue in the wild due to agression spread out over hundreds of fish and plentiful food.

In a reef tank, numbers help, but generally it just prolongs the deaths. The smallest one dies of starvation. BUT if you can keep them all fed, they can survive.

That's what I've learned from seeing them in the wild diving and tons of reading and discussions with people who've kept chromis.

Same thing applies to Cardinals, from what I've researched.

Anthias seem to be the best bet for shoaling fish. They are prone to uronema. I had 8 die in QT from it. Will try again but treat for it prophylactically.

Chromis too are prone to uronema correct? I will be starting off with API general cure. Then formalin.
Right before going into the tank i will do a safety stop bath. I wish i had some safety stop now. I might try to order some from Amazon.

 

[zalick]

Chromis too are prone to uronema correct? I will be starting off with API general cure. Then formalin.
Right before going into the tank i will do a safety stop bath. I wish i had some safety stop now. I might try to order some from Amazon.

That's what I've heard but I honestly do not know.

I've been told the best way to keep them happy is to make sure they all get fed. So when you have the one on the lowest rung of the totem pole while you're feeding you need to make sure that one get some food too

 

[ReefParadox]

Went to the Lfs on Thursday to get some squid and mysis cubes and they had some Talbot damsels about 1 1/4 inch (small!). First time I've ever seen live ones. I bought 5 of them, drip acclimated, observation box for a few hours and put em in the display. They were pretty plump and healthy and ate well when I fed the tank soon after. Chased and pestered by the staghorn and neon velvet damsels (4 fat n sassy little pigs) that evening. So far still have all 5 and are pretty much part of the pack now. Really pretty damsels

 

[ReefParadox]

Oh and Ridgeway, gorgeous frag tank by the way..

 

[Deezill]

Went to the Lfs on Thursday to get some squid and mysis cubes and they had some Talbot damsels about 1 1/4 inch (small!). First time I've ever seen live ones. I bought 5 of them, drip acclimated, observation box for a few hours and put em in the display. They were pretty plump and healthy and ate well when I fed the tank soon after. Chased and pestered by the staghorn and neon velvet damsels (4 fat n sassy little pigs) that evening. So far still have all 5 and are pretty much part of the pack now. Really pretty damsels

I just ordered 11 of them (Talbot) from saltwaterfish.com They should be better than Chromis. I found out that the Chrysiptera genus should play well together and should not really pick each other off.
I am going to order an auto feeder though

 

[ReefParadox]

Good choice! Just my observation but the ones I bought are sleeping under a cabbage leather, frogspawn and bubble coral and move alot of gravel/sand with their tail and mouth. They stay mostly around the bottom and don't school at all, at least not yet. The rest of my chromis and damsels stay in the middle and top of the water column and sleep in the rocks and sps. The Talbots are eating the small stuff in my frozen combo of Rods fish food, mysis, squid, and chopped clams, with selcon and garlic to build up their immunities. Dont know if yours will be as small as these but I also mixed up some "Reef Bugs" (from Amazon) and added a couple tablespoons to the return nozzle, they loved all the little stuff in that! and it feeds all the corals and keeps the copepod and amphipod population up for the wrasses and copperband butterfly. Good luck and hope you end up with a nice sized group!

 

[Deezill]

in QT i am going to feed 1mm pellets, mysis, and a few other items that i am forgetting to name. All will be selcon soaked.

 

[mikeintoronto]

I think I might try anthias.

Anthias also get uronema, if that’s a concern.

 

[mikeintoronto]

I had 11 chromis in a 225 and they were amazing until just before the 1 year mark when they rapidly started disappearing. The last 2 victims I was able to remove (although they still died) and now there’s just 1. It’s peaceful enough in the tank so I just left it.

If uronema is a concern, just treat them with a formalin bath and metro in their food for a couple of weeks before introducing them, even if they are asymptomatic. Same for anthias.

 

[sstanley223]

I have 9! I love them! Makes the tank energetic. I have added smaller ones too and the group looks around like they know something happened but dont know what! The system they are in is kept very well fed though.

 

[Deezill]

Anthias also get uronema, if that’s a concern.

I did not know Anthias were Uronema candidates. Im glad to know formalin and metro works. Thanks.

 

[Bill Bolton]

Ok folks, before I order 15 Chromis, I want to know who has had multiple Chromis in their tank for a year or more. I have been doing research and before I even start QT I am worried about uronema that these guys have. So if you have Chromis let me know how long you have had them. I think they would make great Shoaling fish.

When I had my 750 up..... 11 long years ago.... I had a school of 30. I had no real problem with them, they were alive for better than 2 years, and when I sold the tank, 1 died in the shuffle. I have no clue how long they lasted after that. In tanks since, I've never put more than 2. I never went for the super sterile tank parameters, and usually had a very wide variety of everything from Shrooms and Zoas to a few SPS that caught my eye.
I'm sure I was probably riding the luck cycle at breakneck speed.... and sooner or later they would all die.... but I really enjoyed them while I had em.