Do Not Ever Ever Buy A Damsel!

I suppose that's appropriate for a fish in black&white stripes

 

I had a yellowtail damsel and had to move half of the rocks and corals to the other side just to get him out. It was a big pain in the.....

 

I don't like damsels either. Though cheap, energetic and colorful-these are bullies and very territorial towards most everything added to a tank after them. I have a 4-stripe(humbug)damsel that I can't get out of my tank. He killed 2 Royal Gramma's, Bar Goby and 6 line Wrasse. I've tried to get rid of him but I have too much live rock and too many corals. Without my tank looking like the aftermath of a category 5 hurricane, i've come to grips with reality-He won't be leaving shop til I switch tanks in a month or two. Then he is history...!

 

We just removed 4 damsels from our 30 hex. It started out easy with catching the two of them within a minute. The other two however... there was lots yelling, water everywhere, rocks wrapped in newspaper on the floor.... I think a cat 5 hurricane sums it up perfectly. We learned the hard way to take it SLOW, and not just get something just because....

 

My yellowtail is doing great, she gets along with everyone. Did have to get rid of the blue damsel tho cuz he was a mean one. Is it just me or does everyone say he when it is mean and her when it is sweet and beautiful. Prob just me

 

Just wait until the yellowtail gets bigger. The first fish you try to add she will go after. I thought the same about my velvet damsel. Nice fish, didnt attack my other fishes. Then the next thing I know when I added my mandarin dragonet, like coral reefer and codyw said, my tank was a freakin cat. 5 hurricane because I had to tear it half down just to get the little punk out because he went STRAIGHT after the mandarin!

 

That will be the time to pull out the ol' pocketfishermen .

 

i just have to say that my maroon clown is the boss
in my tank.

 

Oh well I just seen this post now. Makes more sense to me now I see all this.
I had a Blue yellow tail one that behaved. I started out 2 years ago with a convict damsel. This one was pretty aggressive. Then I started another tank and in this tank I added a black domino damsel. This fish got up to 4 inches,really big. That sucker would draw blood on my arm. I actually could see its byte marks on my wriste the next day at work. Looked like a small circle. This is the one that I had for about 1.5 years. It got along with my clown percala that I still have and my Lawnmower Blenny that is still with me. After a while this sucker wouldnt allow another fish in the tank. I liked the Damsel for personality and beauty. That sucker was a strong swimmer and lightning fast. I intended to keep that one with me when I mover here from Eastern washington but his bag he was in while transporting happened to be touching the heat pack that was taped to the top of the box.
So..I recomend the yellowtail blue ones but the domino and the convict
(black/white stripped) ones should be kept alone or at least introduced with its tankmates at the same time. Ive heard you can add fish to a tank with aggressive fish if you move around all the rocks in the tank then re-add all the fish at the same time.

Jay

 

I've heard about the rock re-arranging thing too. Has anyone had that work for them? I thought about trying it but really my velvet was getting ugly anyways, as all damsels do the bigger they get. So I really wanted him out of there.