Quote:
Originally Posted by albert_dao
Long-term Chromis schools tend to deteriorate into a single pair unless, as I mentioned earlier, you have a large tank (200+ gallons), a really big school (20ish+) and something that harasses them. Chromis do not school in the sense that something like a freshwater Cardinal Tetra does. That is, they don't school because they're socially docile. They have a pecking order that is only maintained due to the constant threat of predation. Subtract that from the equation and they just end up behaving as any damsel would.
A good example would be my buddy Fooser. He threw something like 30 Chromis into his 300 gallon tank. There's now two. It looks really stupid. I'll see if he can chime in here for ya.
Edit: If you REALLY want something that schools, grab some Blue Eyed Cardinals. They tend to form pretty stable schools and look AWESOME when they're older.
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I must agree with Albert. Not just when I tried to throw in 15 in a 50 gallon, but when I throw in a bunch to the ~350 gallon tank, both occassions resulted similarly with them breaking apart from each other, dwindling off, and the bigger one always does get frist dibs on food. Even now when I have 2 left in a 350gallon tank, the larger one eats, and the other one hovers there waiting without moving until a little bit after, and then darts after the food suddenly. So far in my experiences in this hobby, listening to Albert is 99% if not 100% the right thing to do. He knows his stuff and he has pretty much had experience keeping most type of fish available in this hobby at one time or another in his past (no exaggeration).
But if you are keeping different types of chromis, you may get some different responses varying on fish personality (like how some Flame Angels eat SPS and sometims you get lucky and they don't), but if you get unlucky and get even 1 aggressive chromis out of the 4, he may take it out on your other 3....But it is your tank, what you want to do, and I have also seen some really experienced aquarists keep fish species together that normally cant be kept together. Things like timing and conditioning your fish to certain signs helps. I have seen a guy with a 75 gallon keep achilles, lineatus and sohal tangs, all introduced at different times, and not have a problem. He did this by conditioning his fish to not be afraid of a fish trap, when he feeds them he will catch 1 fish and quarantine him out of the display, and rotate this procedure 1 at a time to all fish, so none of them get too dominant, and before adding in a new fish, will take out the most dominant one and put in the new one. The other fish dont bother the new one because none of them care, and the one that woudl care is gone,a nd when that one comes back in, they are not as aggressive... sounds weird, but works.