Chromis kissing?
 

I couldn't get a good picture yet but two of my chromis look like they are kissing constantly. They face each other and then, well, it looks like they kiss :mrgreen: It also kind of looks like they are nipping each other mouth to mouth but not in aggression. Or kind of like they are cleaning each others mouths?

Has anyone seen anything like this?

I will try to get a picture.

I used to have cichlids and know they show their aggression and fight by mouth locking but I have never seen or heard about this in the salty world.

It's how chromis fight, in my tank the loser would end up pouting in the corner till it died :sad:

Yeah they didn't seem to be fighting though. If they were, it was the most passive chromis fight I have ever seen! It was very gentle touching and nipping at the mouth.

Oh ok, never seen them fight like that before. None are pouting in a corner either. They do it for a moment and then swim side by side. I am actually amazed that none have killed each other. This is the first time I have been able to keep them in a group without a bunch of aggression. They are with a school of 7 Scissor Gobies. The 9 chromis and 7 scissor gobies all seem to mix nicely together.

It usually took a few weeks for a loser to be decided

Interesting. They seem to be quite hit or miss. I know people keep them in schools with no problems for years and others seem to keep them in a school and they kill each other off within months. I wonder if feeding has anything to do with it? I feed the tank 3-6 times a day now but when I tried them once before, only 4 lived more than a year but I also fed only once a day. Of the four they then bullied one of them to death and the last three were fine together for another year. I have not tried a bigger group again though until now.

I'm down to 3.
2 appear to have paired off and the 3rd is a tiny little runt that never grew and has never been picked on...I think there's a lesson in there somewhere :razz:

:lol:

How many did you start with and how long? And you feed your tank a lot right? I seem to remember you maybe saying that before...could be wrong though.

This is the last shot at trying a school for me. I am very happy with my scissor tail gobies though! They get along amazingly (not known to fight) and actually stay in a school. They are all about 3" too, so decent sized. If one darts under the rocks, they all do. Its like follow the leader with them.

+1 on kissing. Still have pair, they were doing in it for a while. Havent seen them doing lately but sure was amazing to see. Didn't read about behaviour of chromies, they were more bought to fill midwater column(cheap). Nowdays one is hiding constantly while other is out. Maybe just a short affair?