damsel and eel

[millerlite]

Has anyone come across this? I have a blue damsel in my 125 gallon tank that I thought would be lunch for my snowflake eel, lionfish, grouper or trigger. Instead, it backs into the eel and slaps it in the face with it back tail all of the time. It also helps the trigger that is 4-5 times its size dig holes all day under the live rock. The other fish seem to even be afraid of the damsel even though they all eat goldfish that are twice the size of the damsel.
Just curious what the reason is for this interesting behavior.

 

[irenicus]

HAHA. I had a damsel that did that to my eel too. I'd get pissed cause he'd never eat him or stand up for himself. Just Cowarded. Though beautiful, Damsels are the street fighters of the aquaria world. There tough and they are hard to catch. I would refrain from feeding goldfish to your saltwater fish, it's a prescription for problems down the road. Look into getting SW baitfish if you live on the coasts, otherwise, you need to seek safer dead alternative.

 

[supercichlid]

I too noticed this with my Snowflake Moray and my Velvet Damsel. I wonder if there is some sort of beneficial relationship between the two that we are yet to know about?

 

[mossad327]

I don't have an eel, but the damsels in my tank do this all the time to all the other fish. They'll even do it to my brittle starfish. I like to think of them as "b#$%#-slapping" everybody else.

 

[irenicus]

LOL

 

[evilss]

i think that snowflake eels like some damsels. i had about 10 cycling my tank and when i got my eel he ate all but 1 of the damsels. that was about 4 months ago. the damsel and my trigger go into the eels cave all the time.