Damsel Tank..LOL

[95harley]

Ok, I have my 2 small eels (White Eye and Golden) in a 75g with about 70lbs of LR.
Eventually I want to get a Japanese Dragon Moray and do a single species tank with Damsels for motion and color and on occasion food.
Question is currently and long term how many Damsels would you put in a 75g with lots of cavs and rock caves with either these 2 - 14-15" eels or the 1 big Dragon eel?
Looking for advice. Can you have too many Damsels?
Thanks.

 

[ledzep fan]

I believe AW2 is selling his Dragon for a very good price.

 

[95harley]

It's a HAwaiin, but yes he has a nice eel. I'm looking for a darker orange Japanese. There is one on another site for $999 but I need to grow my golden a little first before I can add him to my 240 so he can compete for food....However.....
How many Damsels in a 75g for an all Damsel tank?

 

[kjr_trig]

Originally Posted by 95Harley
It's a HAwaiin, but yes he has a nice eel. I'm looking for a darker orange Japanese. There is one on another site for $999 but I need to grow my golden a little first before I can add him to my 240 so he can compete for food....However.....
How many Damsels in a 75g for an all Damsel tank?
Ok, I will play...How about 8...I would think zero after a short while though, don't most morays hunt at night? My Snowflake was very active at night.

 

[95harley]

Currently my Golden and White Eye have 0 Kills under their belt. I agree that the Dragon may take his share..but I'm thinking about now while I Fatten my golden up.
Probably will take a yr or so.

 

[stdreb27]

I would think your damsels would be good untill your eels are really hungry, they are fast and hide well. I'd bet unless one is really dumb and swims right infront of the eel when he is hungry they'd be ok. Not that I have any experience with them.

 

[azul1994]

I'd do 9 damsels.

 

[eelski]

i try to keep damsels for my fimbriated eel to eat. sometimes they go down quickly, sometimes weeks. i put 2 in over a week ago. the dumbest slowest one ever is still surviving.

 

[jon321]

I would say to densely crowd them like african cichlids. I added 6 damsels to a 77g tank and within 2 years there was just 1 left, the weakest was slowly killed off, then the second weakest, etc. Once picked on the weaklings wont last long with an eel around. I would probably dump in like 20.
Jon

 

[thoroughbred]

I would say probably 5-8. They will probably go quicker than you think considering there so aggressive, a couple would probably die from just getting beat up by the others. It only took my snowflake 3 days to down my damsel. He earned the damsels trust and a day later the damsel was dinner

.

 

[crimzy]

Originally Posted by Jon321
I would say to densely crowd them like african cichlids. I added 6 damsels to a 77g tank and within 2 years there was just 1 left, the weakest was slowly killed off, then the second weakest, etc. Once picked on the weaklings wont last long with an eel around. I would probably dump in like 20.
Jon
I'm with Jon. Both damsels and eels are very hardy and can thrive with less than ideal water quality so I wouldn't worry too much about overstocking. They are probably not going to get very large and I assume that periodically you'll restock. Natural food source. I like this idea.

 

[aquaknight]

I would bump it up and do like only 2 speices of damsels, 15 dominos and 15 3-strip or chromis or something. Set the tank up will a 2 island theme on opposite sides of the tank, then sit back and watch. They'll have like territory wars and form attack gangs lol...