Blue/Green Chromis

[SelectedByNature]

What is the consensus about blue/green Chromis in nano tanks (32g cube to be specific).

 

I find them to be beautiful and active but my uneducated leaning would be it's kind of wrong to have them (especially with my current aquascape). They seem to need a lot of swimming room and also to be kept in a group.

 

Thoughts?

[Groot]

They are a schooling fish but you can keep one with no problem.

[msparklym13]

HI! Yes they are definitely a schooling fish... I like them in 3s and 5s but your tank would be maxed out with 3 and tough to add much else. I have purchased other fish that typically "pair" or school solo and it is actually pretty interesting. Currently I have one clown and it has become chummy with my 6 line. I opted against a pair of clowns this time due to the footprint and was hoping with only one they would be less likely to bite (No luck there).

[reefone]

you can get as many chromis as you want. eventually they will kill themselves off until only one is left.lol. tried to have them many times in my 240g and they always kill each other until one is left.

[jestep]

Get 1 and you're fine, otherwise get more and they'll reduce themselves down to 1. Completely agree with reefone, the only exception I've found other than having a massive tank, is if you can feed them a lot which minimizes bickering, but most people aren't going to feed 3 - 5 times a day.

 

If you want a group of small fish, mix 1 of different peaceful(ish) species. Springers damsel, talbots damsel, blue reef chromis, blue/green chromis, black bar chromis, black and white chromis, black axil chromis, there's a handful of others, but aggression is greatly minimized in groups of non-specific fish. My clowns are by far more aggressive than any of these. Also, not suggesting adding all of these to a 32 gallon tank, but mixing has resulted is much better results for me.

[SelectedByNature]

Get 1 and you're fine, otherwise get more and they'll reduce themselves down to 1. Completely agree with reefone, the only exception I've found other than having a massive tank, is if you can feed them a lot which minimizes bickering, but most people aren't going to feed 3 - 5 times a day.

 

If you want a group of small fish, mix 1 of different peaceful(ish) species. Springers damsel, talbots damsel, blue reef chromis, blue/green chromis, black bar chromis, black and white chromis, black axil chromis, there's a handful of others, but aggression is greatly minimized in groups of non-specific fish. My clowns are by far more aggressive than any of these. Also, not suggesting adding all of these to a 32 gallon tank, but mixing has resulted is much better results for me.

Thanks Jestep. So more or less they are mainly aggressive with their own species/variation? But a single one would be okay with less aggressive fish? I didn't realize they were aggressive among themselves.

[jestep]

Thanks Jestep. So more or less they are mainly aggressive with their own species/variation? But a single one would be okay with less aggressive fish? I didn't realize they were aggressive among themselves.

 

Yeah, and it's not so much direct aggression. It's more like their social hierarchy facilitates the weaker fist to be excluded from feeding and generally a target of aggression and bickering. So, you start with a group which initially seem fine, and slowly 1 fish becomes the one being mostly picked on who gets the least food, eventually it perishes, and then the next weakest fish, and so on. It's possibly there are examples of small groups working, but I've witnessed and seen this happen almost every time in my tank and other tanks that I pay attention to. With mixed groups, multiple fish reduces shyness, but doesn't seem to lend itself to the social hierarchy that I think is the actual problem with conspecifics.

[Ebn]

Feed lots if you want to give it a shot. I have 3 together (out of the 4 original; one didn't make it through QT with uronema) and they've been in a loose school for awhile now over the course of 8+ months (the largest one is ~1.5" having grown from 1/2"). Things that seems to help is heavy feeding and having more assertive fish in the tank. Their aggression is basically within their own so what I have seems to work.

 

For feeding, I feed 5-7 cubes of frozen food on weekdays (tank at work) and 3x per Apex feeder (pellets) on the weekends. Everyone gets plenty of food regardless of what the other fish in the tank are doing. As for the assertive tankmates, I have a pair of bimaculatus anthias and the male keeps the chromis in check. They tend to shoal with each other within 3-6" spacing in the 47 gallon throughout the day.