Howdy! I'm a wildlife veterinary researcher, and I'm looking to better understand blindness in green chromis. Now that I've had 2 of them pass in the past 2 months the same way with the last one on its way out, the pattern is obvious when I look back the past 3 years. I've had no problems with uronema or aggression keeping 3 chromis at a time. They get fed multiple times a day and are fat and happy. However, around a year, one will start swimming around at night and not hiding in their usual coral spot. After that it slowly wastes away until death. With this recent batch of deaths, it's obvious they were all blind, which explained their behavior and eventual death from a calorie deficit. To me, this seems more like some kind of nutritional problem rather than an infection.
Best I could find was this old post from 2001:
My 70 gallon SPS-dominant tank gets Hikari Marine S pellets, Cobalt Marine omini flakes, nori, Blue Zoo mix, and various frozen foods (SF bay multipack and mysis shrimp). I have a decent amount of copepods and amphipods replenished from a sump refugium. Most of my other fish live well past their advertised lifespan, so I don't think it's a water parameter issue. My clownfish is 15 years old.
I'm looking for reef owners that have had the same chromis for over a year (ideally, many), and if there's anything different they are doing for them. I'm worried that these fish may not be suitable in the hobby since they don't seem to last long in people's tanks and that gets blamed for other reasons. Alternatively, we can identify what might be missing in their diet or care. Thanks!
Photo is of my last blind buddy hiding in the corner with the characteristic wasting.
Best I could find was this old post from 2001:
My 70 gallon SPS-dominant tank gets Hikari Marine S pellets, Cobalt Marine omini flakes, nori, Blue Zoo mix, and various frozen foods (SF bay multipack and mysis shrimp). I have a decent amount of copepods and amphipods replenished from a sump refugium. Most of my other fish live well past their advertised lifespan, so I don't think it's a water parameter issue. My clownfish is 15 years old.
I'm looking for reef owners that have had the same chromis for over a year (ideally, many), and if there's anything different they are doing for them. I'm worried that these fish may not be suitable in the hobby since they don't seem to last long in people's tanks and that gets blamed for other reasons. Alternatively, we can identify what might be missing in their diet or care. Thanks!
Photo is of my last blind buddy hiding in the corner with the characteristic wasting.
