Awful damsels chasing my clowns!

Hello everyone, my mom got me 2 beautiful Black Percula Clowns. They are beautiful. I have been battling what I thought might be ick, new fish syndrome, don't know what’s going on with them so I have them sectioned off in the tank with some Plexiglas cause I have these 2 AWFUL damsels chasing and picking at them. I want these 2 fish out of here but can't catch them without tearing my whole tank down (not my first choice). I thought I saw something on here about a trap using a 2 liter plastic soda bottle....anyway I need some help!!!! Thanks!

 

What type of damsels?
Good luck with a trap. Ive never been able to catch a damsel successfully. Only by tearing down the tank...

 

damsels are hard as hell to catch. I had to remove all my live rock. I promised myself i would never ever buy one of those again.

damsels are some mean ass fish.

 

I'm so sorry to hear this. Have you tried getting them at night with a flashlight. I've had success getting fish that way. you have to be quick but it does take them a bit to figure out what is going on when they get hit with a bright light.

For the record. This is another one of those things about this hobby that I don't understand Damsels are very mean fish. The fact that LFS and others recomend these as the first fish for a tank is crazy. Blue/Green Cromis are great first additions and are not expensive nor agressive.

 

Well, it depends on what kind of damsel. Yellow tails and blues are usually fine. Its when people start getting the tuxedo and domino's that they have trouble. I also think a lot of it stems from people being new to the whole thing and completely over-react to fish having to establish territories and a pecking order.
And for the record; clowns and chromis are damselfish

 

I second that. It irks me so much when people tell others to go buy a damsel to cycle the tank. Why do it? Half of the people aren't going to keep the stupid fish, then they have to break their backs trying to catch it. I cycled with an ocellaris clown pair. They're tough, or tougher than a damsel (they are technically damsels), and chromis are five bucks and won't attack everything. It just bugs me so much. You can cycle with so much more other than an aggressive damsel that you don't want to begin with and that is a pain in the butt to get out again. You can pee in your tank, if you wanted to.

Ok I'm getting off of my soap box now. That wasn't at all directed towards you, kymsflower. It's just been on my mind lately with all of the damsel problems/people cycling.

Either a fish trap, fishing line with a hook and bait, netting it when it doesn't see you coming (fat chance), or tearing down the tank are your only real options to get them out. I recommend the trap first.

 

Sorry I did not mean to take the post in a direction that got us off the problem at hand. I just hate to see this recomendation given because most of the time IMO the damsel ends up being a problem if they survive. I have also heard the fish hook idea. Thinking outload do you think you could cut a hole in a soda bottle and put some food in it... Wondering if the Damsel would swim in at which point you could yank it before it could find it's way out.

 

I didn't cycle my tank with them, my boyfriend loves them, they are the blue ones with the yellow tails. I do understand the pecking order but my new clowns seem to be having a hard time adjusting to the tank, I almost feel like they may be getting Brooklynella, this morning they had wat looked to be like a slime on their scales, a few spots here and there so I herded them to one end of the tank and sectioned them off. I came home this evening, they were out and one of the damsles was in there and still couldn't catch the little @$#! My clowns are the smallest fish in the tank besides the damsles.... I just don't quite know what to do, hate to move them again and cause more stress. I saw someone fashion a trap with a 2 liter bottle and was trying to find the thread with the pic of it. : ) trying to do it as easy and stressless (is that a word?) as possible.

 

I bought a fish trap to catch my mean damsel. Before I got around to it I added some other fish. Somewhere along the line the damsels personality changed. I think the bigger fish put him in his place and now he's a good fish that doesn't bother anyone. He was the first fish in the tank and thought the tank belonged to him.

 

if this hasn't been mentioned above i say go fishing, literally just need a really tiny hook and some tasty food.