[AlexFish]

My LFS told me that the Green Chromis I put in my 30 gal. FOWLR tank setup was not a good choice because they should be kept in groups of approx. 12. From the reading I have done it seems like a group of 4 or more would be fine but two of the initial three died within a week. After the two chromis died I had my water checked with a different kit and found my pH was at 7.8 not 8.2 where I thought it was. The tank was started about a month and a half ago and all I have put into the tank so far is the three Chromis(two are dead now), four blue-legged hermits, three turbo snails, and a camel shrimp. I have started adding crushed coral to bring the pH up and will not be adding anymore fish or inverts until it has stabilized at about 8.2. Does anyone have thoughts or experience with a small school(4) of Green Chromis in a small tank? I am a beginner with saltwater aquarium's so any help would be appreciated.

[leebca]

WELCOME AlexFish !

Glad you found Reefland. Thanks for posting!

I find that the Green Chromis do very well in groups of 5. Two fight each other. Three will form a pecking order and run the low-one on the order to death. Four may do well most of the time, but they might pair up against each other (pair). But five keeps them 'mixed.'

If you make a separate post on people's thoughts about keeping hermit crabs, you may be surprised at all the reasons why you might want to get rid of them.

Visit the Marine Fish: Care, Health, and Disease Treatment Forum when you get the chance.

[oktober7609]

Hello there!

I do have 4 green chromis in my tank (you can find my tank and pics by looking up oktober7609), and mine are fine...

I do have one that was smaller than the others, and he hung out by himself behind the rock structure (except for feeding time) for the first 2 or 3 weeks he was in the tank...

But since then, all four hang together, and there has been no fighting at all...

Maybe I'm just getting lucky, maybe it's because of the size of my system- maybe it's because my blonde naso tang keeps everyone else in line!

I'd be wondering how the rest of your water tests are coming out for ammonia, phosphate, nitrite, nitrate just because chromis are very hearty fish- some of the more inconsiderate types even use these fish to help their tanks cycle...

Also, what are you feeding these guys? How much and how often?

Hope this helps you out!

-oktober7609

[AlexFish]

Thank you for the information.
The ammonia and nitrite have been zero and nitrate is at 20 ppm. At first I was feeding them marine flake against my better jugement but that was what the LFS reccomended, now I have an assortment of San Francisco Bay Brand frozen foods. I feed the tank once a day in the morning I cut off a piece of plankton, emerald entree(which is a mix of micro algea and vegatables), and brine shrimp. The one remaining Chromis loves this food compared to the flake and he seems to be doing well.

[leebca]

I'd only recommend gut loaded brine shrimp. If you're using SF bran (Sally's) then they have a couple of good gut loaded frozen brine shrimp products to offer.

Additional info is here:
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

[AlexFish]

I added four more Green Chromis a few days ago and they are doing great. The original Chromis has grouped in with the new ones fine and they stay out in the open most of the time. I read your post on feeding, thank you it was very helpful.

[Ninong]

Five is a good minimum number for Chromis viridis. The problem here is that if your tank is relatively small (30 gallons), then five of these will result in fewer of everything else. That's the reason I decided not to go with them in my 120-gal tank.

They look nice schooling together and they will often do that in really large tanks (300+ gallons). This is a natural defensive behavior that they usually drop after a certain period of time in captivity, especially in smaller tanks. This assumes that one would not add an aggressive fish to a smaller tank, thus making schooling unnecessary. However, in really large tanks one might include a few more aggressive specimens (e.g., certain tangs, hawkfish, etc.) and this will encourage the C. viridis to continue their natural schooling behavior.

My opinion on hermit crabs is that they're more trouble than they're worth. I did keep a dozen scarlet reef hermits in my 120-gal tank just because I thought they were cute but in retrospect two of those little guys would have been enough. Snails are better and safer and they won't eat the beneficial sandbed epifauna.

P.S. -- I see that you posted this in the fish-only forum but if you should ever decide to add a few corals to your tank, get rid of the camel shrimp first. It's a corallivore.

[leebca]

Ha! Same here.

I had a disaster that killed four of my five. The loan Chromis seemed to be in a state of shock -- super paranoid -- barely coming out to eat.

I added four more and the lone fish 'jumped' right into the group, always up front, and now I can't tell it apart from the rest! I think psychologically, they want and need to be with each other.

Glad to hear it turned out well. Post photos if you can and are willing.

[AlexFish]

Here is a couple pics of our Chromis.

[leebca]

Nice! Thanks!

[John Hamilton]

I started with ten and ended it up with four, even had to add a few back and I never had any problems with them. I do have two gangs of Damsels the Fijis run the uptown real estate and the Yellow Tails operate the downtown territory. I think they actually take payments from my Dwarf Angels, they have not organized yet, and the Royal Gramma pays them protection money.