Royal gramma harem
January 2019 Update.
We had a group of 8 royal gramma in October 2018.
A smaller 8th royal gramma disappeared (into the rocks?) after a few months in the tank.
The 75 gallon tank has 200 pounds of holey and pukani live rock in it. It is arranged in a cubist structure that takes up most of the entire tank.
Including the bare bottom there are 2 layers of caves and many swim throughs and cut throughs around and above that.
We now have 5 royal gramma that I see on a daily basis. 3 of those are visible almost constantly. But mostly just sticking their head out of the rocks with a small amount of swimming.
During feeding 4 pop out immediately. Then a 5th comes out from the back much later on.
Feeding usually lasts 5 to 10 minutes. We feed frozen, frozen clams and live black worms from both sides of the tank to make sure everyone visible gets some.
We still regularly overfeed to make sure that plenty of food gets down to the seven 8" brittle stars.
The last time I could verify seeing 7 royal gramma at a time was almost 2 months ago.
At one point in early November I thought we were down to 6 royal gramma. I added 5 small H. chrysus (5/8" to 1.25") to the tank. (Small tub of sand in the back) That day it brought out the 7th royal gramma for a brief appearance during feeding.
Not necessarily a good thing. It probably meant that the 7th royal gramma was temporarily spooked out of its current hidden home or wasn't getting enough hidden food. (All pumps are on when we feed)
I would like to believe that the 3 royal gramma I never see are similar to the half dozen cryptic mini fish that I have added over the years. [emoji53]
There may still be a pygmy geometric hawkfish perchlette (3 viewings over 4 months, a year ago) and 3 ruby red scooters (1 male, 2 females) all added at different times over the years. (Pod additions every few months 'just because'.) The pom pom crabs (2 viewings a month after adding) and rock lobster (crab) could mostly be doing fine.
Our gecko Gobi took 2 months to reappear.
But I see that at least 3 times a week now, so who knows.
Probably just wishful thinking that all the others are still alive and well.
All 5 of the visible Royal gramma have grown dramatically. When they were added, they were as little as 3/4" to 1.25".
Now the smallest visible one is 1.25" and the largest is between 2" and 2.25".
The (1.5") starving yellow tang has exploded in growth (now 2.5") and completely bypassed the copperband butterfly fish (2"). The copperband remains fat and happy but still small.
We have been feeding even more clams in an attempt to increase the copperbands growth.
(Looks like I'm never getting a derasa.)
The 5 yellow 'coris' wrasse have also grown noticeably in several months.
The small longnose hawk fish and small flame hawk fish have not grown much at all. Both are still active, the first to feed and wander around the tank at their leisure.
The 2 ocelaris clownfish are fine but also not growing nearly as fast as some of the others. They reach the food even faster than the hawk fish. [emoji849]
At some point I would like to start a separate thread to learn about growth rates of different fish.
Yes, this is a ridiculous amount of fish for a 75 gallon tank.
Still dialing in the correct amount of GFO to control phosphate without crashing it completely and have a hard time keeping nitrate below 40.
In addition to the marine pure plate I have recently added a brightwell aquatics NO3 plate.
Weekly 10 to 15 gallon water changes are also part of regular maintenance.
We have enough (eventually mature) fish for two 75 gallon tanks. Both the mature copperband and the mature yellow tang are sketchy for a tank this size.
Current plans are to keep the 75 and add an additional 120 gallon tank to a different part of the house. The long 120 tank dimensions make it less demanding to the crawl space foundation of our house. Without shoring up the rafters underneath the house, I don't ever see us adding a 180 or similar dimension tank. (I am now to fat to fit into the 14" openings to our low crawlspace)
Back to the royal gramma.
At another LFS, I finally saw a 3" male royal gramma. "Oh, that's what you meant about the long fins."
Lol, none of ours are visibly male yet.
Several trips back to one of the usual LFS and observing the 15 tiny Royal gramma in their 40 gallon breeder. They are all out and about and fill the entire tank. (Is that because many are pushed out of the better hiding places?)
They are normally the only fish in that tank.
While none of our other fish are aggressive, all of them move around a lot more than the royal gramma do.
I am very happy with the tank mates that our Royal gramma have. The 5 immature yellow 'coris' wrasse remind me of a family of otters bouncing around. I will miss them all being in the same tank once they start maturing into males and fighting with each other constantly.
(Unlike some other fish harems, wrasse will all eventually turn male in a fish tank environment. Once subordinate wrasse turn into males they need to be rehomed before a fight to the death happens.)
If you want the royal gramma to be your signature harem and fill the entire tank space then they may need to be the only fish in the tank.
That is what will probably happen later with the 75 gallon tank. It will be primarily for the royal gramma.
