I have two adults that grew from little ones. They fought like hell in a 46g qt, but in my Reefer 525 (I think like 130g, 5 foot long) they each have one half of the tank. They stay on their side. They are out all day, never hide. If they squabble it’s more often with an orchid dotty back or pearly jawfish than with each other. So you can possibly keep a couple of these in non-harem form if the tank is long enough.
Royal Gramma harem
- Thread starter norfolkgarden
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mta_morrow
Of course I have room for 1 more fish!
Dsnakes
Knight Reefer
Sounds like it will be hit or miss since I have one now that appears male and ordered two more. I’ll hope for a hit
They’ll all be added to the display at the same time though. Maybe they can find their own territories if needed.
OP
OP
Nice! How long have you had them?
My two large males couldn’t care less about each other, is that odd in a larger tank?
OP
OP
Guessing they each have half of the tank?
We could keep 2 dottybacks that way in the 4' long 75 gallon tank.
Home territories on the far ends and very little fighting.
We could keep 2 dottybacks that way in the 4' long 75 gallon tank.
Home territories on the far ends and very little fighting.
I love this thread! Thanks for all the information.
Exactly. Two full grown males, each have their own half of a five foot tank. Actually, I’m able to have an orchid dottyback and a pearly jawfish (some have trouble because of the body shape) too. No fighting at all currently. Had a brief week or so long period of the dottyback harassing the jawfish (then for about a month a cave goby harassed it, they must be soft targets.) No fighting for six months or so at all.
When they were mid sized juveniles (prob already male) in my 3 foot 46g at they beat each other up pretty often. So tank size really seemed to matter a lot.
OP
OP
Very cool.
It would be a total disservice to the Grammas to add a group of orchid dottybacks to my tank.
Sigh, but I thought about it....
Fully stocked (overstocked) with fish right now.
As I think more about starting the 'discussion' with Better Half about adding a 125 to the living room (and reinforcing the crawlspace!) I will probably add a group of orchids to that tank.
Hoping to remove a lot of the fish from the 75 and mostly dedicate it to the royals.
3 gramma are visible right now. 1 out swimming and 2 poking their heads out of the rocks.
I find that Royal Gramma turn male without suppression of another male very quickly. One week by themselves, even small ones, is all it take. They may not change to the male appearance for a while but turning male seem to be irreversible.
Males, IME, are very intolerant to each other. That is the reason why they always have the reputation of aggressiveness for con-specific and that most people thinks that they can only be keep one per tank.
My two male RG did not coexist in a 450 gal tank. I have a Harem of 5, after about 5 years, the male become old and feeble. One of the female change and promptly kill him. For 2 days she (he) chased him all over the 450 gal full of rock and did not stop until he is dead. This is after they spawned many times over 5 years. There were no mortality of the RG in my tank other than this one.
Brian1f1,
Are you sure you have two males? RG are dimorphic. You can easy tell male from females because they looks different, not just the size. Here is a picture that clearly show RG dimorphism. Male in the back and female in the front. Also the pelvic fins of the males are at least 50% longer than females.
Mine take bites at them, but won't eat enough and loose weight. I have to resume feeding frozen for them. I don't have RG in my tank now because I don't feed frozen regularly. I know that they won't do well without frozen food regularly.
I feed just Nori and pellets multiple times in a day. Frozen only occasionally on weekend. On weekdays, I leave before the light come up and return when the light is about to turn out so that is why I don't do frozen food.
Brian1f1,
My two large males couldn’t care less about each other, is that odd in a larger tank?
You got a male (R and in the back) and female (L in the front). Look at the transition of the purple to yellow, Male have less yellow and have longer pelvic fins. There is a trailer on the male pelvic fins that cause the length to be about 50% longer than the female. That is why you have two in your tank. If they are both males, one would be dead by now.
OP
OP
@OrionN thank you!
@OrionN thank you!
Very interesting. I have the tank all stirred up right now. They were medium sized when I got them, so I’m very surprised. I will take good pics of them both tonight and post.
The ratio of the length of purple to yellow in female is about 1:1, for male it is about almost 1.5:1.
They are all bark and no bite. Male RG display and show a huge mouth to discourage intruder. However if the intruder disregard this the the RG go into hiding.
You will never how much of a chicken they are (Royal Gramma) looking at their open mouth and aggressive posturess
You will never how much of a chicken they are (Royal Gramma) looking at their open mouth and aggressive posturess
OP
OP
May 2019 update.
Bought 2 tiny H. Chrysus to replace the 2 that jumped out over the past month.
They are significantly smaller than the other 3 in the tank.
No issues with acceptance from the other 3 H. Chrysus.
The springeri damsel didn't like them for the first day. Now no issues.
The sad part is this was enough to completely upset the 3 remaining visible royal gramma.
It took a week before they were all visible again. Now in slightly different areas of the tank.
The royal gramma have been a major disappointment in terms of sturdiness and willingness to jump up and grab food around fish that don't really qualify as being aggressive.
The 2 new H. Chrysus are 7/8" and 1 1/8" long.
The large gramma is 2.5" and the 2 smaller grammas are about 1.75"
All grammas have been in the tank for most of a year.
In terms of "Are royal gramma like chromis? Where they start with 6 and fratricide down to 1?"
I still have no idea.
When we get the 125 gallon tank and transfer most of our fish to it, I hope to see some of the Grammas pop out of the rock.
Thinking their tank mates should be limited to fire fish and dart fish. :-/
Bought 2 tiny H. Chrysus to replace the 2 that jumped out over the past month.
They are significantly smaller than the other 3 in the tank.
No issues with acceptance from the other 3 H. Chrysus.
The springeri damsel didn't like them for the first day. Now no issues.
The sad part is this was enough to completely upset the 3 remaining visible royal gramma.
It took a week before they were all visible again. Now in slightly different areas of the tank.
The royal gramma have been a major disappointment in terms of sturdiness and willingness to jump up and grab food around fish that don't really qualify as being aggressive.
The 2 new H. Chrysus are 7/8" and 1 1/8" long.
The large gramma is 2.5" and the 2 smaller grammas are about 1.75"
All grammas have been in the tank for most of a year.
In terms of "Are royal gramma like chromis? Where they start with 6 and fratricide down to 1?"
I still have no idea.
When we get the 125 gallon tank and transfer most of our fish to it, I hope to see some of the Grammas pop out of the rock.
Thinking their tank mates should be limited to fire fish and dart fish. :-/
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