Keeping royal grammas together

OrionN

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I keep Royal Gramma for many years. After all these years, 15+, the following are my observation. You will find little information in literature on these small fishes. Royal Gramma’s are protogynous hermaphrodites, juveniles, then females. The dominate fish of the group will turn male. They are dimorphic; with the male have more purple, less yellow and longer fins, especially pelvic fins then females. I will attach pictures of male and female below.

The problem with RG is that they will change sex very quickly, within days, the small female without a male to suppressed her will change sex and become male for all practical purposes, even when he still look like a female. The outward appearance will not show for weeks. Male RG are very aggressive toward each other. A 420 gal tank full of rock was not big enough to stop two male from killing each other. I had a harem of 7 in my 420 gal for many years, after 5 years or so, the male was getting a little long in the teeth. One of the female change sex and promptly kills him. He was not able to hide from the new king in a 450 gal. It was too big of a tank for me to catch and take him out.
RG also does not eat dry food, they much have frozen food, or most will starve. In large tank with lots of rock, they can and will hunt for food but supplement with frozen is a must. Without feeding frozen, they will not last long.

They can easy keep in group. Have the LFS order them in group and keep them together on arrival until you can pick them up. They will disperse in the rock work and are very docile and great community fish. They have all bark but no bite. Display a lot when other fish get into their territory, display with their mouth open to try to chase other fish, but I have never seen them bite, other than when there are two males.

Male RG would build a nest deep in the rock, in his dent with bits of stuff. He would bring algae and various materials to build the nest then he would try to entice the female to go into his den to spawn. After the spawn, he alone would guard the eggs. I have never tried to raise the fries, but people have CB RG for a long time. The price of these fish in the US is too low to make it a commercial success. In Asia, CB Royal Gramma’s are available for sale. They are beautiful, active, docile fish that are great in community setting. They do need non aggressive tank mates.
My male is in the back, female in the fron
royalgramma-jpg.859605


Female RG
RoyalGrammaFemale.jpg


Male RG, new male where the fins are longer but purple coloration have not fully extended yet. Still the porportion of the purple is larger in this male, but not anywhere near to color of my male above.
RoyalGrammaMale.jpg
 
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I keep Royal Gramma for many years. After all these years, 15+, the following are my observation. You will find little information in literature on these small fishes. Royal Gramma’s are protogynous hermaphrodites, juveniles, then females. The dominate fish of the group will turn male. They are dimorphic; with the male have more purple, less yellow and longer fins, especially pelvic fins then females. I will attach pictures of male and female below.

The problem with RG is that they will change sex very quickly, within days, the small female without a male to suppressed her will change sex and become male for all practical purposes, even when he still look like a female. The outward appearance will not show for weeks. Male RG are very aggressive toward each other. A 420 gal tank full of rock was not big enough to stop two male from killing each other. I had a harem of 7 in my 420 gal for many years, after 5 years or so, the male was getting a little long in the teeth. One of the female change sex and promptly kills him. He was not able to hide from the new king in a 450 gal. It was too big of a tank for me to catch and take him out.
RG also does not eat dry food, they much have frozen food, or most will starve. In large tank with lots of rock, they can and will hunt for food but supplement with frozen is a must. Without feeding frozen, they will not last long.

They can easy keep in group. Have the LFS order them in group and keep them together on arrival until you can pick them up. They will disperse in the rock work and are very docile and great community fish. They have all bark but no bite. Display a lot when other fish get into their territory, display with their mouth open to try to chase other fish, but I have never seen them bite, other than when there are two males.

Male RG would build a nest deep in the rock, in his dent with bits of stuff. He would bring algae and various materials to build the nest then he would try to entice the female to go into his den to spawn. After the spawn, he alone would guard the eggs. I have never tried to raise the fries, but people have CB RG for a long time. The price of these fish in the US is too low to make it a commercial success. In Asia, CB Royal Gramma’s are available for sale. They are beautiful, active, docile fish that are great in community setting. They do need non aggressive tank mates.
My male is in the back, female in the fron
royalgramma-jpg.859605


Female RG
RoyalGrammaFemale.jpg


Male RG, new male where the fins are longer but purple coloration have not fully extended yet. Still the porportion of the purple is larger in this male, but not anywhere near to color of my male above.
RoyalGrammaMale.jpg

You had 7 in a 420 Gallon. How many would you recommend in a 210 with 175 lbs of rock? Not that I'm doing this but was more curious.

Edit: Also forgot to say thank you for sharing this. I seem to recall reading it on another forum that is why I tagged you. I know you have kept these and the Flames in groups.
 
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Diveks

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I think a group of 4 or 5 should be good.
Did you quarantine yours together? Because from what you said, if i keep them separated im concerned that the females will turn into males and fight till the death. My tank is also fed 4 times a day different kinds of frozen, pellets, etc. although if having more than one will most likely cause issues i would rather keep one then, im not sure i want to see one of my fish get killed by the other.
 

OrionN

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Did you quarantine yours together? Because from what you said, if i keep them separated im concerned that the females will turn into males and fight till the death. My tank is also fed 4 times a day different kinds of frozen, pellets, etc. although if having more than one will most likely cause issues i would rather keep one then, im not sure i want to see one of my fish get killed by the other.
I did not see this until now.
I don’t QT my fish. If you want to QT then you should have your LFS get a group and you get them together and QT them together. If you need to add more later just QT what you need plus 1. Return the largest after finish QT and add the other to your tank.
 

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Two together?

1597116865667.jpeg
 

vetteguy53081

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Nah. Just the male fight. Females co-exist I n reef tank
I tried once with two and holy moly. May have been boys
I do have two 6 line wrasse in a tank and surprisingly get along other than occasional chasing
 

OrionN

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I got a pair of Six-line wrasse in my 420 gal DT tank years ago. They were fine together and paired up. They team up and tear the eyes out of my female Mandarin. One go for one eye and the other go for the other eye. She was blinded in seconds. Happened right in front of me and too quick for me to do anything about it. Looks every bit a coordinated attack to me.
I euthanized my Mandarin Dragon and return the Lucifer pair to the LFS. I was going to flush them both but been a fish saved them.
Beautiful fish. Perfect for my 420 if they were not so evil.
 

OrionN

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I tried once with two and holy moly. May have been boys
I do have two 6 line wrasse in a tank and surprisingly get along other than occasional chasing
They turn male really fast. IMO, if they are alone for a few days they are male. The only way to get them in group is to order them as a group and keep them together. You can't order them in 2 groups, then you have 2 males. When my male turn feeble after 5 years or so, one of the female turn male and promptly kill him (in a 420 gal tank). I cannot remove him in such a large tank and he was not feeding. On the run the whole time and died in the rock.
 
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Diveks

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im currently in the process of quarantining the first 'round' after a long cycling process. i currently have 2 male sailfin mollies and they keep the algae in the tank to the minimum, plus, they look beautiful. i also have a foxface currently in the observation tank (the one from my recent thread is doing well now) . and ive decided its better to just get one rg (better be safe than sorry hehe). i can't find anyone who sell rgs together, most rgs they sell here are in isolation before you buy em so guessing they all probably already turn male.
 
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