Lost my fourth Royal Gramma in as many years - why?

[sfin52]

You are correct, I never had more than one at a time. The last one spent a lot of time in a hole he dug in the sand under a rock. I don't have a lot of hiding spaces in my tank though as the rockwork is pretty open. Temperature has been constant at 78 degrees for a long time. Would lower be better?

That may be your problem and dotty backs seem to really love to hate basslets as well. Not enough hiding spots and the dotty back may be putting a lot of stress on the gramma

 

[sfin52]

I’m is not a great eater, if you have a Royal Gramma what does it eat?

Mine devours my diy fish food and will stay on the outskirts of the feeding frenzy.

 

[Reef.]

Mine devours my diy fish food and will stay on the outskirts of the feeding frenzy.

Mine was a good eater at first, I think as the fish matured it changed its whole personality

 

[joec]

How long were they in the tank before dying? Sounds like stress or bullying causing them to go in hiding. My past ones really held their ground to even bigger fish. Fearless little fish.

I dropped in 4 recently at the same time from biota. 2 dies fairly quickly but they were tiny. IMHO were too small to be sold. The other two have settled in and I feed separate sides of the tank so they get their share while they grow a bit to complete with the bigger fish.

Mine each lasted one year each. They both were treated in QT, prophylactically and then into a stable DT. Their demise was the same. Hide more than usual, slowly stop eating over a few weeks and then hide and no eating at all until euthanized.

 

[Zionas]

That’s really weird. I wonder if they are a species that’s just too timid for many tanks, or for whatever reason just don’t do that well in captivity.

 

[i cant think]

I somehow kept my RG alive for 5 years but don’t know how. IMO the CB RG’s are often disformed and just don’t look like a wild specimen so if you got CB ones then that’s probably why they’re not surviving long.

 

[Zionas]

I guess this just gives me reason not to have this family of fish for the time being. They’re just too shy for the majority of tanks.

Which deformities do CB ones often come with? Do you think it’s because our breeding protocols for them still kind of suck?

 

[i cant think]

I guess this just gives me reason not to have this family of fish for the time being. They’re just too shy for the majority of tanks.

Which deformities do CB ones often come with? Do you think it’s because our breeding protocols for them still kind of suck?

I cant quite figure out what looks wrong with them but it’s something I see with most if not all CB royal grammas and it puts me off. It never seems to l effect how these fish live short term but long term I can’t really say since I’ve only cared for some in the LFS I worked at and they usually got sold about a month later.

 

[sfin52]

I somehow kept my RG alive for 5 years but don’t know how. IMO the CB RG’s are often disformed and just don’t look like a wild specimen so if you got CB ones then that’s probably why they’re not surviving long.

My royal gramma has been in my tank since 2015