Sorry for the TL;DNR, thought I'd see what someone(s) might say about A and B below.
I introduced a final fish for my tank, a Starki Damsel.
The Starki is being an a**hole, that's for sure. But the Chromis and he worked out the bunking arrangements, Chromis basically gave up a cave for him.
In general, the tank seems fine. The Starki will randomly go after the Chromis every 5-10 minutes when things are bad, but mostly intermittently most of the time, sometimes poke the clown, and harass the wrasse a bit now and then. For some reason he seems to leave the Orange Dart fish mostly alone.
But the Starki is by no means running fish around the tank for any length of time, etc. In fact he will sometimes swim peacefully right next to the Chromis and certainly the others. When he is being a jerk, he nearly always quickly gives up chasing the Chromis and the wrasse, when he goes after them. In fact, after 7 days, he has functioned as a kind of dither fish. He swims at a point of the tank that I wished fish would occupy (now he does), and he has spread out the inhabitants, such that they aren't all just swimming in one corner into the powerhead.
Feeding is trickier, but very manageable.
He's slightly smaller than the Chromis, about the same size as the wrasse and Chromis though. I presume he will get bigger.
The Chromis is by far his primary target, as I feared if there were problems.
A. I wonder if he's going to start murdering as he gets older? The aggression has gone up and down. It was bad the first day or two, I thought I was going to have to try to get him out. But surprisingly, things calmed down. Some days are worse than others and I notice if I walk up to the tank, the aggression most often increases.
B. I also wonder at some of the relatively minor fin shredding I'm seeing on the Chromis. It healed up, but I notice today the Chromis's rear fin underneath is again relatively shredded. Based on past experience, I would expect it to be fully healed tomorrow (seem to heal in 24 hours or less). Still, how worried should one be about this? It seems to me it could be the Chromis doing that to itself by fast maneuvering and some of the reckless swimming he does near his cave (hitting the rock). I dunno.
I don't think the Starki is nipping at anyone, but it's hard to tell. When he goes after a fish, it does not seem like the kind of thing that his victim would be wise to be lazy about- he's a nasty bully- he could be nipping.
Google says this kind of intermittent fin damage is very common in reef fish.
I introduced a final fish for my tank, a Starki Damsel.
The Starki is being an a**hole, that's for sure. But the Chromis and he worked out the bunking arrangements, Chromis basically gave up a cave for him.
In general, the tank seems fine. The Starki will randomly go after the Chromis every 5-10 minutes when things are bad, but mostly intermittently most of the time, sometimes poke the clown, and harass the wrasse a bit now and then. For some reason he seems to leave the Orange Dart fish mostly alone.
But the Starki is by no means running fish around the tank for any length of time, etc. In fact he will sometimes swim peacefully right next to the Chromis and certainly the others. When he is being a jerk, he nearly always quickly gives up chasing the Chromis and the wrasse, when he goes after them. In fact, after 7 days, he has functioned as a kind of dither fish. He swims at a point of the tank that I wished fish would occupy (now he does), and he has spread out the inhabitants, such that they aren't all just swimming in one corner into the powerhead.
Feeding is trickier, but very manageable.
He's slightly smaller than the Chromis, about the same size as the wrasse and Chromis though. I presume he will get bigger.
The Chromis is by far his primary target, as I feared if there were problems.
A. I wonder if he's going to start murdering as he gets older? The aggression has gone up and down. It was bad the first day or two, I thought I was going to have to try to get him out. But surprisingly, things calmed down. Some days are worse than others and I notice if I walk up to the tank, the aggression most often increases.
B. I also wonder at some of the relatively minor fin shredding I'm seeing on the Chromis. It healed up, but I notice today the Chromis's rear fin underneath is again relatively shredded. Based on past experience, I would expect it to be fully healed tomorrow (seem to heal in 24 hours or less). Still, how worried should one be about this? It seems to me it could be the Chromis doing that to itself by fast maneuvering and some of the reckless swimming he does near his cave (hitting the rock). I dunno.
I don't think the Starki is nipping at anyone, but it's hard to tell. When he goes after a fish, it does not seem like the kind of thing that his victim would be wise to be lazy about- he's a nasty bully- he could be nipping.
Google says this kind of intermittent fin damage is very common in reef fish.
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