three striped damsel

Hello i have a three striped damsel fish. And i just recently purchased a green birdsnest and a monti cap. I put the green birdsnest near where the damsel stays. I have seen it nipping on this frag. Wherever i read it says they dont eat coral? Or do they?

 

Critters eat critters and other things! Not many hard set rules in this hobby with what things will and won't eat, There are some, but rules are made to be broken.

What do you feed it now? feed it well and the correct foods and he should leave it alone.

 

They get agitated at stuff in their 'space' lol. A good friend of mine has a coral safe fish that accosts new frags too. Hafter a while it will leave it alone.

 

I feed all my fish mysis shrimp and flake food twice a day. Just wondering if the damsel will leave it alone after awhile. since it is very territorial.

 

I've never seen a damsel nip at corals. I had two in my last tank, and I currently have one in my frag tank. Damsels are bad news. Lol I would get rid of him honestly. They are mean aggressive fish and only cause problems, especially when matured.

I somehow managed to catch mine. I put them in a container and brought them to petco. I told the fish guy "I know you guys dont give refunds on fish. So I am just going to leave this container on this counter, and walk away." Lol I didn't know what else to do with them. I considered flushing them because I was so mad at them but I felt too bad.

 

Do you have a sump you could put him in for a week or 2? Then he'd be less territorial about that space.

Honestly, I feel damsels get it worse than they deserve. They aren't much different than a lot of other fish we get. Tangs, triggers, angels, wrasses, etc can be territorial and pick on/kill newcomers. Damsels just get it bad because people mistakenly put 1 or 2 in the tank first and leave them there for a while, letting them establish what's theirs before the tank has most of its fish. Not that everyone should have a damsel, but I can name a lot of commonly kept fish by people on forums that seem to be just as bad.

 

I almost died once on a dive trip secondary to invading a damsels territory, true story.

The damsel does not like where you placed the frag.

 

We went diving during Sgt. Major damselfish breeding season. Holy moly those fish are viscous.