Removing A Damsel

well as some of you no i just set up my first tank. the first fish i put in was a damsel. I have learned that the are not the best fish for a reef tank. I really want him gone.

is there any tricks to removing them from a large tank full of rock? Maby some kind of trap?

Thanks

 

Who told you a Damsel wasnt a good fish for a reef? Most Damsels are reef safe. Its all your personal opinion. I would however say its not great to have a Damsel your first fish as they are quite agressive terotorial.

The trick I use is sink a tiny amount of food then float some food. (it worked a couple times for me). You have to be super quick with the net IMO. almost like your swatting a fly. Not saying this is the best way but worked for me.

 

Do you still have the plastic bag he came in? If not, get a clear zip-lock bag and use that to trap him. Fish seem to have a very hard time seeing the clear bags and they'll usually unwittingly swim in. We seem to have the best luck with opening the bag, submersing it, putting a piece of live rock in to weigh the bag down, then using a net to slowly move the fish toward the rock in the bag. It'll probably go hide under the rock to get away from the net and then you can just close the top of the bag, pull it out of the water, put your rock back in the tank, empty the bag into some container and take that back to your LFS.

 

Oh and try this procedure with the lights off (assuming you have moon lights you can turn on) or just dimmed. That will give you an even bigger advantage.

 

if its just a yellow tail you could probably leave it in.

 

Wow thanks for the extremely fast replies guys, this is really a great site.
I have a Blue damsel. I was told buy my LFS that i should take him out. I bought a piece of rock today and it had a nice mushroom growing on it. within 30 min he was already picking at it. so i figure he is going to pick at it till its gone. or am i wrong?

 

They're not good for a reef in the sense that they'll kill a very large portion of the other reef-safe fish lol

 

thats strange damsels are reef safe, are you sure it was actually going after a healthy mushroom and not some crud on the rock?

I have never had it happen with any of the many damsel I have owned, of course there are oddballs to any reef safe guidelines though.

 

Over time they usually become the bully of the tank. I would recommend to take him out if you can.

 

If Plan A doesn't work, just add a large lionfish to the tank... after that eats the damsel, just take the lion back out