# Orange Chromides



## earth intruder (Oct 14, 2008)

Anyone have any experience with orange chromides?

I just set up a 20 gallon brackish tank, and I have 4 inch-long orange chromides, a knight goby, and some little rhinohorn gobies.

Everything's great so far, I love the little guys! I'm just wondering about other people's experiences with them - is there anything I should look out for?

I've heard that ultimately it's best to keep them in pairs, what's your opinion on that?


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Great little fish!! I would love some again, but I am having a hard time finding the wild color form again. I prefer them over the man-made 'red' coloration version, one I think it looks better and two the wild types do better in freshwater in my experience, where the man made red form does better in brackish. I also love knight gobies too!! And Badis, Dario, and sparkling gouramis ... you have good taste!! :thumb:

Which color form do you have? I found they were a little nippy when pairing up, a bit worse than kribs .. but once paired they did fine in a 20 Gallon Long ... It might be hard to pair them in a 20 gallon though, I used larger tanks to do so and then moved the pair.


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## dogofwar (Apr 5, 2004)

Here's a thread of my experiences with them from a few years ago: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... mide+breed

I started with a group and ended up with a pair that spawned a few times...and the male killed the female. They can be really aggressive to each other and trying to drop in a "new" male or female proved unsuccessful.

I think that Jeff Rapps has some of the wild type. Getting healthy stock from the LFS has proven to be challenging and not too many people are breeding them.

They're cool fish - give them a try. "Brackish" is easy: just dump in some sea salt with your water changes!


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Have you had both wild and red types *dogofwar*? I was never able to get the wild type to breed in brackish water, only fresh. But I couldn't get the red form (one you had) to breed in freshwater, only brackish.

It wasn't until I read an article by Dr. Paul Loiselle where I read the wild ones are primarily freshwater fish (like kribs, can be found in brackish but it's not common). After weening them off brackish and back to freshwater, I had no more issues. Always found that kind of weird.


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## dogofwar (Apr 5, 2004)

I don't remember ever having kept the wild type ones... I'd like some...but haven't seen any nice ones recently...

I've had pretty good luck transitioning most brackish fish to full fresh. I have anableps (I know not a cichlid!) that I started in brackish...and are now full fresh and doing great.

I've kept the orange chromides in both...only bred them with some salt in the water, though!


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## earth intruder (Oct 14, 2008)

Unfortunately, I could only find the red type. I prefer the wild-type coloration too, but our LFS couldn't get them and I can't afford shipping for ordering online right now!

Regardless, I'm definitely enjoying the little guys. I think I've identified one as a male, as for the rest I'm not sure if they're female v. subdominant males. I'll have to keep an eye on his aggression.

I'm really excited about my knight goby, too. In the store they spent most of their time hiding, but after 1 day, mine started swimming out in the open all the time, even at all levels of the tank.

Dwarfpike - I love badis, I can't believe they aren't more popular! They're like little cichlids.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

They've been a hard fish to find lately, which is too bad. With them being in a brackish tank, it's kind of good you have the red form. I found they handle the brackish much better than the wild form.

I agree with you on the badis, I've long called them the 'apisto's of asia' ... :lol:


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## Westenra (Nov 23, 2010)

I have 2 green chromides, they won't eat pellet nor flake foods only taking my expensive amazon sword grass and ghost shrimps.


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