Sunshine Chromis Damselfish: Best Beginner Fish?
- Mar 28, 2021
- Anshika Mishra
- 1742 0 0
Sunshine Chromis Damselfish also popular as Purple-Yellow Chromis and Olive Chromis are great beginner fish, but their coloration and appearance attract even the experienced fish keepers.
So, let dig deeper and find out everything you need to know to give these fishes the best tank life possible:
Sunshine Chromis Damselfish
PRICES: You will be normally spending about $10 to get one of these in your tank.
TANK SIZE: You need at least a 30-gallon for keeping one Sunshine Chromis, but since these fishes are in pair so you will definitely be needing a much bigger tank when they grow up.
CARE LEVEL: They are super easy to fish to keep, they are a very hardy breed of Damsels, so they do well with newbies who tend to do some obvious noob mistakes. These fishes can survive these beginner mistakes, they will never be a choosy eater, therefore a great beginner's choice.
TEMPERAMENT: At the end of the day, they are Damselfishes, so they will be a bit aggressive, but for the most part you will not be having aggression problems with them in the tank.
REEF COMPATIBILITY: Yes, they are great reef fish, they will not harm any of your corals, they will just school around the tank like a little gang which looks very pretty to watch.
ORIGIN: They do come from the western Atlantic ocean and in Florida, you can find them in the Caribbean
Water Parameter
TEMPERATURE: You want to keep it between 72-78 degrees Fahrenheit
dKH: 8-12
pH: 8.1-8.4
SALINITY: 1.020-1.025
Appearance
COLORS: When these fishes are juvenile, they will look super pretty, they will be having a pearl-white belly, and going up the body you can see the purple neon dominate with yellow head.
The colors get even crazier when they get older and become an adult, they will actually fade into a very dark purple-blue almost black color.
MAXIMUM SIZE: Eventually, this fish can get 6-inches. But this also depends upon the food you are giving them and the tank size they are kept in. So, if you have a very small tank compared to their size you might not see them grow that big.
Diet
They are an omnivore, so they're gonna eat pretty much anything you can put in the tank, they are always hungry so feeding them is not a problem.
You can feed them:
- Brine Shrimp
- Mices
- Frozen Cubes
- Flakes
- Pellets
Basically, they will eat anything you throw in the tank. They just love food.
Schooling Fish
They are schooling fish, so they do great in groups. If you are about to get groups of them then it is advised to get an odd number of groups of these fishes like a group of 5, 7, 9, and so on.
They will keep chasing and playing with each other throughout the caves and the decorations.
You definitely want to have a good rock structure with caves and little crevices as they like to get in and out throughout the day. If they ever get scared of something they can go and hide in the caves and it gives them that home environment that they crave.
Aggression in the tank
Once these fishes get acclimated to the tank, they will start causing problems, they will start claiming territory. With fishes like Tangs and Angles, they will not bully them, but when it comes to the other fishes like Rasbors, Gobies, and other similar fishes when you can see aggression in the tank.
So, just pay attention that your other fishes are not getting bullied by the Sunshine Chromis.
For mellowing down the aggression you can also add them at the last when all the other fishes have already acclimated themselves into the tank.
So, that was pretty much everything you needed to know about these fishes, feed them good, keep the water parameter stable, stay at top of your maintenance and see these fishes play and thrive in your little slice of the sea!
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