Springeri damsel or royal gramma

robert73 · Nov 7, 2022

Was wanting a green chromis for a free swimming fish but turned off by the statistics of uronema and their stress in shipping so wanting a blue fish or a highly colored fish. Tank mates will be 2 clowns, 1 firefish, 1 orange spotted goby. All living happily and thriving. Corals are all softies plus 1 gorgonian and 1 frogspawn. This is in a fluval 32.5 marine, 36x18x18 I believe in size. Was really wanting a free swimmer as last fish but limited on options obviously but guess need to settle on another colorful fish that may not be the free swimmer. So narrowed it down to either a springeri damsel or the royal gramma. Tankmates considered which would be best fit? Willing to hear some alternate ideas if any. Tank is very peaceful. Clowns are biggest fish in the tank, the female has definitely claimed it as her tank even though shes only 2 inches but does not bother the other fish, only puts the male in his place when food is around lol. Any in tank maintenance she let's my hand and arm know lol

davidcalgary29 · Nov 7, 2022

Royal grammas like to perch on (or hide in) aquascape and can be cryptic; you may not see it for much of the time. If you have a gorgonian, consider a radial filefish; while they prefer xenia, mine has adopted my Grube's gorgonian colony and spends much of its time in it, especially when asleep. Filefish are really underrated, and most people end up with the problematic matted filefish, which tends to cause more problems than it solves.

If you want a colourful, energetic fish, consider a captive-bred fridmani dottyback pair. They're the most gorgeous small fish that I've kept, and I've never had a problem with them, although plenty of folk here have reported aggression issues with them.

bradreef · Nov 7, 2022

i like royal gramma's. They can hide a bit if picked on but, in my experience, will become active and swim about a bit.

killer2001 · Nov 7, 2022

I wouldn't consider the RG an active free swimmer. Mine comes out, swims around for a bit and reports back to his cave often times perched inside looking out, or swimming amongst the crevices in the rock work.