Suicidal chromis

4/23/04
I was hoping to buy a pair of clownfish today, but the dealer said they have to be added last because of territory issues. But I did bring home a school of six green chromis. These are youngsters, maybe 3/4”, but will grow to 2” or so and are one of the few marine fish that get along well enough in an aquarium to buy more than one. Plus, they are cheap and hardy, what more could one want? Hardiness was proven almost immediately. After I got them settled into their new home, I went to enjoy a well-earned cup of tea. When I came back, I had only 5 chromis! When schooling fish are nervous, they stick together, so there was no way one had just gone exploring on his own. I could think of only two things--either he went into the overflow box (which a grate is supposed to prevent), or jumped out. Sure enough, I found a small body on the rug behind the tank after a minute or so of looking. When I touched it, there was movement, so I gathered him up carefully and placed him back in the water, where his body drifted downward, horizontally, to the bottom. NOt looking good....but within 15 minutes he was vertical, and when I came home from yoga, he was swimming around!

The other new arrival is a bi-color blenny. Cute little thing, about 2.5”, a rock dweller. He backs into the smallest imaginable holes in the rock and just pokes his head out to look at you. I bought him because this is one of the few fish that eat red slime algae, and I have that kind in spades. He proved his worth by taking a bite of it shortly around dinner time. Now if I had maybe 10 of these, the tank might begin to look good! I’ll have to wait on a picture of him until he is braver. Right now the basslet is harrassing him so he is staying in his hole.

On the decoration front, I added a piece of red branch macro algae. I also took a picture of the whole thing, so you could get a distance perspective.