Orange Chromides

[MadCatter]

Hello everybody

I was just recently gifted two orange chromides (male and female) as well as a green spot puffer. My boyfriend's coworker was actually going to kill them because she couldn't take care of them anymore, but couldn't bring herself to do it - fortunately! I actually ended up selling the green spot, as I have a figure eight puffer already and didn't want to cause any conflicts. The chromides already to be extremely comfortable in my tank, casually chasing my swortails/mollies around, but never actually nipping. They haven't touched the puffer, nor the other way around (I'm lease concerned about my puffer being violent as he acts as though only he and the ghost shrimp in the tank exist, and wouldn't even chase feeder guppies).

Basically, I was just wondering about your personal experiences with these fish? What should I look out for, and what should I expect? I've looked up care sheets online, but I'd like to know a variety of different experiences, and there are few places I trust more for fish information han here

Thanks

 

[nmonks]

These are lovely, underrated fishes. My brackish book has a whole chapter devoted to them... they're that worthwhile. Not at all aggressive, though territorial. Breeding is possible, but not quite so easy as, say, for kribs. Like discus, the baby fish eat mucous from the skin of the parents. They are probably very primitive cichlids, and can rightly be thought of as "living fossils", and watching them give you a chance to see what cichlids were like when they were beginning their migration from the sea into freshwater.

In terms of care: low to middling salinity, a variety of foods, and caves for spawning. I'd add some greenstuff to the diet; vegetarian or mbuna flake foods would be ideal.

In the wild type fish, the colour change between normal and breeding condition is dramatic. In the artificial bright orange version, this is much less obvious.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[kanzaris]

Hi

I had a breeding pair for about a year. They started breeding after I had them for about 3 month. After that they completely took over one half of the tank (even when there where not breeding)Then suddenly the female lost interest and the male nearly killed her. So I had to separate them. I kept them with my Figure 8 and they bossed him about but nothing serious.


Sabby

 

[MadCatter]

From what I've seen since this morning, my biggest problem appears to be that my puffer kills the ghost shrimp (also, the only food he will eat), but the chromides snatch the rest from him. It doesn't look like they're able to get much of the meat out, but they're still scaring my little puffer any time he tries to take it back from them. Nobody has bit anybody else however.. just lots of fast movements and intimidating gestures. The others in the tank are basically clueless to the goings-on of the tank, but they are nice distractions.

Edit: I also got a BBgoby (in my 5 gallon) with the money I got from selling the GS, and although I was initially worried about whether he'd eat, the second I tossed in some flakes and freeze dried bloodworms, he went crazy, diving at just about everything he could find. So cute!

 

[MadCatter]

I should also probably figure out proper salinity levels for these guys as well... my tank is currently at 1.004, which I understand is pretty low. What would be optimum for both my F8 and the Chromides?


I've also opted to get rid of some of the platies/mollies that I have, as they are finally starting to crowd the tank. The two mollies I have, have grown at an exponential rate. I got them initially at about a week old as puffer food, but he could never catch them, so they've gone from itty bitt specks to nearlt 2 inches, in about 2 months. I'm convinced they're so huge because they are always the first to get the food, as well as find the babies from the platies.