Chromis behaviour

A

AllanEcc

Joined
24 Jan 2011
Posts
54
Reaction score
0
Location
Radiokop, Johannesburg
I have 5 Blue Chromis. 2 have grown faster than the others. The 3 small ones spend their time hiding. They are pale. We do make sure they get some food. Obviously the being bullied. All 5 Chromis are skittish and hide if we go near the tank. All other fish (clowns, goby, gramma, tang) are relaxed.

Any ideas on sorting out the chromis? We tried catching the bullies but no luck!
 
Try and moving the rock work to normalize new hiding spots. You can try some egg crate to seperte them for a week or two or chuck the bullies into the sump for a week then back.
 
mytank said:
chuck the bullies into the sump for a week then back.
Click to expand...

Try catching them first.....:lol:

I think a minor rescape might help....but if that fails....get the dreaded fish net out and a good dose of patience....
 
Last edited:
i would rescape first and give it some time to see how things adjust.

i would possibly look at getting two more chromis and increasing the size of the group slightly. that has the effect that the two bullies disperse their aggresion across a bigger group and the shier fish will have a bigger group to shoal with and feel safer in numbers.

I think you'll find that the two bigger ones are pairing off and may well be spawning or intend to spawn, which is fine but you will then need a decent sized tank for the others to be able to avoide the parents while they tend eggs and fry, before getting eaten by the others.
 
I have found this the case with blue/green chromis on the 2 occassions I have bought a school of 5...they are fine when they are small and school together, but as soon as they get older...pretty much around the time they are ready to breed they start to take each other out...both sets of 5 I had eventually over time reduced themselves to 1 single chromis. I know there have been a few other guys on the forum that have experienced the exact same thing...thats why this time around I bought a school of the Black Bar chromis...much better than the regular ones. :p

How to solve the problem I dont really know else I would have been able to sort mine out...agree though that maybe a bigger school may help. :blush:
 
Spreading the aggression def helps (i.e. more Chromis).

I think my approach (worked with my tangs) would be:

1. Rescape the rock work - disrupt the current norm and allow them to find new hiding places.
1.1 When rescaping create some breeding holes so that the chromis that might/want to breed can.

2. Try and catch them, Chromis are esp easy to catch at night. They usually hide against things sometimes even the glass! If you catch them: if you have a QT then QT them for a week or two. If you don't just sump them they will be ok. Chromis are close to bullet proof.

3. Add another 2 or 4 (has to be odd numbers) to make the numbers greater and uneven.

4. Last resort before point 5, add a pasifire fish :) Like my purple tang, he gets fed up with the chromis fighting and then PK's all of them ;)

Good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom