kona reefer

I would try adding more chromis. In a lot of fish species the larger the school the less likely any one single fish will be bullied. It is odd that it is the largest one that is being bullied so if possible you could move it into a quarantine tank which would allow you to look for any signs of disease or illness and allow it to feed without competition and give it a chance to fatten up. When you reintroduce it to the others do it with more chromis so it doesn't just go back to being bullied. I hope it makes it. Good luck.-Jenn

unfortunately with every bit of research I have ever done on chromis (as I have at one time or another considered getting them) always pointed to them forming a very strict hierarchy and picking on one until it dies then moving to the next weakest one. In your case this one taking the punishment and then eventually eating after some coaxing is probably the only thing keeping them from picking on another one of the chromis. I agree with Jennifer about trying out a quarantine tank to help that one back to better health but you may also be looking at the possibility that another one becomes the bullied

I have always read that with shoaling fish that a high odd number keeps this from happening

I know there are some people on here who keep them and do so quite successfully so hopefully someone else can chime in on them. I personally have stayed away from them do to what I have read and been told by those who have tried to keep them locally here, but just like everything in this hobby you have your success stories and you have your horror stories.

i have kept far away from chromis for this reason, however i second adding more, many LFS and fishbreeders use higher population density in some species to avoid this, i also remember hearing it in a clownfish breeding episode of reefcast i believe.....ahhh reefcast, those were the days lol

I started with 11 in my tank, its taken 2 years but I am now down to 4. Two sets of mated pairs, they lay clutchs regulary if I could only figure out how to raise the fry I'd have a whole lot of them. I think its a hit or miss on adding more, usually the biggest picks on the smallest, never seen the smallest pick on the biggest.

I have also noticed when one female is ready to lay eggs that pair gets more aggressive with each other a few days prior. Then the larger one (I'm assuming female) get a little yellow color on the fins and within hours eggs are laid and fertilized.

I've got six in my reef and one in my frag tank. It is odd that the largest is the one being picked upon. When feeding your food, you may want to do it one squirt at a time with a pipette so that you can point the food to the various fish in question to assure all get a meal. It's a little slower, but less wasteful.

I'll give it a shot. That is pretty much what I have been doing with a turkey baster, but I will put more effort into it now. Also, maybe I will just stick with mysis, as it seems to be the only food the chromis recognize.

The only other thing I could think of is when working on the tank to net the dominant chromis and put him in the sump until the other chromis become more dominant and self-assured.