bdunn13

I got a couple(2) green chromis last Saturday and added them to my newly cycled 120 gallon FOWLR tank. I have 12 snails so far(2 turbos) and the rest are those little ones.

I would have liked to have gotten 4 or 6 chromis but the LFS only had 2.

One question, can I add a couple of more? I read you should always add them in pairs? Is this true? If I add 4 more, will they be too aggressive to add other fish in a couple of weeks?

Also, they seem very timid right now, they always hide in the caves I made and seldomly come out. If they are out, and I walk near the tank they go hide again. This makes it so I can't even tell if they are eating or not. Right now I am feeding them flake food once or twice a day.... as I don't want to feed them anymore as the food just sits on top of the water for so long and when I come back, I can't tell if they ate or not. I always heard its better to underfeed than overfeed.

Thx,
BD

Tumbleweed

I started with 6 chromis in my tank and now I am down to 4. Chromis are part of the damsel family and can get territorial. You could try and add more. If you want 6 total I would get 4 and add them at the same time.
As for hiding this is not uncommen. It is a new environment and they have to adjust to it. Give it some time and they will start to come out more. As for feeding. I over feed my tank. My belief is a fat fish is a happy/healthy fish. I jsut keep an eye on my water perameters and keep them in check. I have a large skimmer in my tank to help clean up the extra waste so it is not really an issue for me.
Also if you try to feed them at the same time everyday, they will learn this and will start to come out around this time, knowing that they are about to get food. I also recomend if you are feeding flake food to hold it in your hand and submerge your hand under water to release the food. This way the food goes into the tank and the fish see it better. This also helps the fish not swollow air when eating and keeep the bulb of the food from going into the overflow before it is eatin.

bdunn13

I was noticing the food would go towards my two overflows... good idea on holding it under the water. Thanks for the tip.

I know the damsels are territorial in general too. However, I read the chromis were not as aggressive. The main reason I got them was I read they would school which is what I wanted. Would you recommend another relatively inexpensive fish that's not aggressive(is a good tank mate) and schools?

BD

Tumbleweed

Chormis can school and are less agressive then there damsel cousins. How ever the thing to remember is when they school in the wild there are 100's of them in a very large area, they they do not get teritorial. In a tank there are a lot less of them, and they are in a much smaller area, so the damsel in them can come out. But they are a very nice and hardy fish. I would stick with them and get a couple more and give that a shot first. All of the other schooling fish that I can think of off the top of my head are harder to find and are more expensive.

bdunn13

Thanks.

jguitarm15

Yeah you should give it some time like Tumbleweed said mine used to hide all the time as the time past, he got more confident and now he will even eat from my hands!!

bdunn13

Well, I ended up getting 2 more. These were much smaller than the other two. They are still not schooling but they are still cool.

I thought I lost 1 Saturday night. The wife and I looked everywhere for it. We thought it might have gotten out too... it was MIA for 12 hours while the other 3 were swimming around.

However, it came out of hiding Sunday.

They are also eating good now too. Like you said, they are already trying to take it out of my hand... Pretty smart guys.