Will these fish squabble when they grow?
Please could you tell me whether adding a group of Green chromis to my 450 l marine tank is a good idea long-term? I’d like a small shoal of fish in this tank but I’ve read that chromis stop swimming together as they get bigger, and I’m worried that they will begin to squabble then, like damsels do. The tank has only been set up for a few weeks and I’ve added no fish so far — just hermits and some frags. This is my first marine set-up so don’t want to mess it up right at the start.
GEORGE WOODS, VIA EMAIL
JEREMY SAYS: I’d certainly recommend Green chromis, Chromis viridis, for a tank of that size as they are cheap, hardy and reef safe. Go for five individuals, but try to avoid the tiny little ones you sometimes see on sale as they tend to be less hardy.
The more chromis you have, the less they will squabble, and they’ll all spend most of their time in the upper water levels swimming up and down.
Feed them little and often with zooplankton-based foods such as Mysis and brine shrimp. Chromis can become more damsel-like in their behaviour towards each other but this only ever happens in very mature fish which are spawning, and this rarely occurs in most tanks. Blue damsel species often whittle down their own numbers, killing each other off until just one pair is left, but Chromis aren’t like that.