Royal Gramma harem

norfolkgarden · May 17, 2018

I am considering a Royal Gramma Harem for a 75 gallon tank. Interested in hearing other people's experiences.
Is this tank too small?

Local LFS always has small Gramma's, under/just at 1".
Can get larger ones as well.

Is there an optimal numer of fish?
I'm expecting to get a single 1.5"+ fish and X number of small ones.

Thank you!

eatbreakfast · May 18, 2018

Get all small ones and let them figure it out. 5-7 should be fine in a 75g.

norfolkgarden · May 18, 2018

eatbreakfast said:
Get all small ones and let them figure it out. 5-7 should be fine in a 75g.

Sounds good!
Thanks!

Daniel@R2R · May 18, 2018

Cool idea!

HairyGary · May 18, 2018

Really cool idea and would add some nice color and movement to a tank. Would it be like Chromis when they knock each other out or does a hierarchy develop and live in harmony?

Davy Jones · May 18, 2018

I also plan on doing this in my new build. Likely gonna order ~5 to start with and see how it goes. That or ill get a pair of black cap basslets but they are a bit spendy to do a harem for me.

norfolkgarden · May 18, 2018

HairyGary said:
Really cool idea and would add some nice color and movement to a tank. Would it be like Chromis when they knock each other out or does a hierarchy develop and live in harmony?

Lol, hoping to avoid the chromis experience.

From research and searching old threads.
1. It works great (4 months worth of timeframe)
2. You end up with a pair.
3. You end up with one.

Hoping for #1

Research says they are like yellow tangs. Grouping together in nature up to 100 at a time. (Royal Gramma's are small enough to keep numbers high enough to make it work?)

Interesting comment from LFS. They keep them all in 1 90 gallon tank. They have 10 to 15 Royal Gramma's at a time for sale.
"Yeah, when their numbers start dropping because we sold most of them, they really start to beat each other up and then we have to seperate them."

They just hang out like a tank full of fresh water cichlids if the numbers are high enough.
Not sure how long that phase lasts.

Current plan (so far) will be trying 7 in the 75 gallon tank.

HairyGary · May 18, 2018

norfolkgarden said:
Lol, hoping to avoid the chromis experience.

From research and searching old threads.
1. It works great (4 months worth of timeframe)
2. You end up with a pair.
3. You end up with one.

Hoping for #1

Research says they are like yellow tangs. Grouping together in nature up to 100 at a time. (Royal Gramma's are small enough to keep numbers high enough to make it work?)

Interesting comment from LFS. They keep them all in 1 90 gallon tank. They have 10 to 15 Royal Gramma's at a time for sale.
"Yeah, when their numbers start dropping because we sold most of them, they really start to beat each other up and then we have to seperate them."

They just hang out like a tank full of fresh water cichlids if the numbers are high enough.
Not sure how long that phase lasts.

Current plan (so far) will be trying 7 in the 75 gallon tank.

Makes sense. Do you plan on having other fish in the 75 as well?

norfolkgarden · May 18, 2018

HairyGary said:
Makes sense. Do you plan on having other fish in the 75 as well?

Yes, current residents are a mated pair of Longnose hawkfish, small flame hawkfish, 2 inch copperband butterflyfish, inch and a half Springeri damsel, Labouti wrasse, flame angelfish.

wiselyy73 · May 19, 2018

How about a firefish harmony?

mystersyster · May 19, 2018

I think it would work well with 6 minimum. My understanding is that a single male is dominant over a harem of femles. Been a whil since I've researched this. However, one will change to male and become considerablely larger. Ive had a pair for 3 years. The lfs employees were easily snoody with me when I bought them lol.

norfolkgarden · May 19, 2018

wiselyy73 said:
How about a firefish harmony?

They are nice but I have always liked a number of other fish more.
The other fish I have are more likely to intimidate them vs the Royal Gramma.
They are also one of the worst in the "five becomes one" category according to research.

norfolkgarden · May 19, 2018

mystersyster said:
I think it would work well with 6 minimum. My understanding is that a single male is dominant over a harem of femles. Been a whil since I've researched this. However, one will change to male and become considerablely larger. Ive had a pair for 3 years. The lfs employees were easily snoody with me when I bought them lol.

Nice! A pair would be nice but I don't want to work towards it the hard way.
I am hoping 7 will be sufficient.

They are all little slivers of a fish at -1".
I could certainly dump more in the tank now, but I need to account for future growth.
Still debating whether 7 of them is a sufficient number to spread around aggression.

I already have a 2" copper band that's going to be my excuse for a larger tank in a few years.
[emoji4]

OrionN · May 19, 2018

Royal Gramma turn male if it say by itself very fast. Make sure you have the LFS keep them together. Even very small RG can turn male. Two males will fight to the death, even in my 450 gal tank in the past.
They are dimorphic once they turn, after a few months. Males have less yellow and more purple, the purple extended further down the body.
Males also have longer pelvic fin. Unless feeding a good diet they tend to loose color in aquarium. They are perfect reef fish. Does nto bother anybody, but can hold their own space. A lot of posturing but I have never seen my RG bite any fish.

Makers Marc · May 20, 2018

Had the initial Trio for one and a half years then the largest "male "died. The remaining two have been together for the past year.

norfolkgarden · May 20, 2018

Make that a 40 breeder at the LFS.
Rock is mostly branching or slabs.

norfolkgarden · May 21, 2018

https://reefbuilders.com/2018/05/21/close-encounters-three-amazing-grammas/
Beautiful fish!

The video also begs the question, can I get greedy and add a black cap basslet pair?

Makers Marc · May 21, 2018

Anyone have long term success with larger, 2inch+ sized Royal Grammas?

When I got my group of 3, the largest was 1.25+ inches and the other two were less than an inch.

The remaining two are now stuck at 1 inches even after 3 yrs. Tank is large enough for growth.

OrionN · May 21, 2018

Mine grew fast. The male was about 3 inches. How big is your tank? They don’t eat dry or flakes. Almost exclusively frozen food.
Are they healthy and FAT? They should be fat.

norfolkgarden · May 21, 2018

OrionN said:
Mine grew fast. The male was about 3 inches. How big is your tank? They don’t eat dry or flakes. Almost exclusively frozen food.
Are they healthy and FAT? They should be fat.

They are small fish.
How long can they live for?

Our neon blue cleaner gobies are 2 and 1/2 years old now.