Schooling Chromis Theory

[jacrispy516]

Disclaimer: I do not have a large enough tank to try this this is just a theory I have.

I've read all over the internet about how people get green chromis and they one by one kill each other off. I just saw the BRSTV video about them making a chromis tank and are adding a grouper to coax them into schooling and not killing each other which sounds like a recipe for disaster. I definitely think a large grouper would cause them to school but also eat them. It did make me think I wonder if a really large tang like an eyestripe tang or fowleri tang would have the same effect on green chromis and intimidate them into schooling instead of killing each other. Any thoughts?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I don’t think it’s been tested yet, but in theory that should help encourage schooling:

My understanding is that keeping a large school can theoretically work, but - as mentioned above - there are a number of things to keep in mind with schooling:

- The number of schooling fish in the tank (I've heard odd numbers are preferred, and the preferred number of fish that I've seen seems to be 9 to 11 at a minimum; the more fish, the more diluted the aggression is between them)

- The size of the tank (for quality of life purposes for your fish, bigger is better - yes, some animals will be calm when shoved into tiny spaces with large numbers of conspecifics where if there was just one or two conspecifics, it would be a deathmatch, but they obviously wouldn't be happy in that situation long-term)

- The amount fed, the quality of the feed, and the frequency of feedings (basically more food = less aggression; and better food = better health = happier, less aggressive fish [theoretically])

- Tankmates (big, scary tankmates that the schooling fish could view as a threat may act as an outside force that keeps the schooling fish focused on not getting killed rather than on fighting amongst themselves)

- The scape of the tank (lots of fish need lots of places to hide/sleep - the more hiding places, the safer the fish feel; line-of-sight-breaks can also help with feeling safe)

That's all I've got for the moment (and pretty much all of it has been mentioned above), but basically - to my understanding - it's a balance of making the fish feel threatened enough by external sources to prevent infighting while also making them feel safe enough (largely through their numbers, the tank's scape, and food security) to not be too stressed. If you're able to strike that balance, you should be able to see schooling behavior (to the best of my current understanding).

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I’m able to keep them, always go with an odd number and I use this Auto Feeder, set to Four Times a Day. To keep the food dispensing, do a mixture of Flake and Micro Pellets. I also reshaped a 1” x 1-1/4” PVC Reducer by placing it in boiling water and shaping it to an egg shape with gloved hands. This drops the food into the Aquarium through the back strip. The other Aquarium the feeder is turned different and I cut Funnel out of a Lipton Ice Tea Bottle.