Lost my first fish

broomer5

Active Member
Well I am sad to report that today I purchased an absolutely beautiful 1 inch Coral Beauty. Acclimated and placed in 30 long tank, along with Blue Damsel, Bangaii Cardinal and Mandarine Dragonett. The 3 fish that had been there were all getting along very well, but the addition of the new Coral Beauty really drew out the aggression in the damsel - and it killed it within an hour. I tried to remove it in time to return it, but there was so much damage :(
Although I was confident that it would make a nice addition to the tank - my overconfidence and lack of foresight led to this wonderful fishes death.
Gross mistake on my part for assuming all would be okay. :( :mad: :(
 

nm reef

Active Member
Broomer....hate to hear about the tragedy......but there is a good side....I just left another board I lurk on from time to time to gather info.....over there you'd be flame fried......crispy toasty burnt to a crisp..............a coral beauty is a gr8 addition to a established tank.....I'm sure you did what you thought was going to work.....extremely unfortunate that it blew up so quick.........that is why I've removed my 2 damsels to their own lil tank...call it my damsel detention center..........I did manage to add a coral beauty to my reef.......friends include a tomato clown and a juv red coris wrasse.....hope you find a way to introduce a coral beauty of your own..........in my opinion its one of the best fish I've seen and a gr8 addition...........
 

broomer5

Active Member
It's just your run of the mill Blue Damsel, and it went for everything, tail, body, head.
It never showed any aggression towards any other fish. Matter of fact it had always been very peaceful. I had a Domino in that same tank and removed it a month ago because it had grown from a penny size to a quarter size and was becoming more aggressive.
That left 3 small fish in a 30 gallon tank, I thought it was going to be okay to add the Beauty. Obviously it was not.
Yes the damsel is going back to lfs soon.
 

guppie

Member
Sorry to hear about your loss, are you going to get rid of the damsel, coral beauty are great fish. Good Luck
 

craigj

Member
Anybody know an easy way to remove a damsel? I have a 72 FOWLR and have been trying to remove a neon velvet damsel for a while now and am having no luck. He's in there right now with a small blue-spotted grouper. I figure its only a matter of time til he ends up in his mouth, but so far there has been no confrontations between the two. I still want to get the damsel out though.
 

liongirl

Member
I just removed 5 damsels from my 44 gallon yesterday. I used two nets. One big one and one small one. i just tried herd the damsel into the big net with the small net and it worked out extremely well.
Ive heard of other people luring the damsels up to the top with food and scooping them out ... but those little buggers are fast!
I got all five of mine out in about 5 minutes. :)
 
Hey Broomer, first Im sorry about your loss but I wanted to ask how the Flame Angel and the RustyAngel get along?? I came across your list of fish in the "aquarium" and had to ask. :rolleyes:
 

broomer5

Active Member
New2Saltwater,
The flame and the rusty get along just fine. I had the flame for several months before adding the rusty. I sort of rescued the rusty - he's not the brightest fish in the tank ( both color and intellegence ;) ) but was a welcome addition.
Thanks for asking
 

ocellaris_keeper

Active Member
Well, I was just reading another posting and it's suggested leaving the net n the tank for a while so the fish get used to seeing it and then corner the bugger and give back to your LPS. I have two blue and three yellow damsels and they are getting to be a handful - bothering my mated clowns. Saturday they are history - the LPS either takes them or my son gets to flush 'em.
 

jbird0824

New Member
Hi boomer5 thats weird that the damels get that crazy with the coral beauty. I had a coral beauty for a couple of months and the damels got along great with him. i had three blue damels and two yellow tail dams. one of the blue ones died because i figure out that 3 damels dont get along. 2 will be cool with oneanother, and they killed the 3rd. one, so i know now always get damels one or in couples. My beauty dyed when i put a yellow tang in the tank it kept following the beauty around and i still think to this day that the tang got him with his spine.. so as we go you see we learn from owe mistakes.. take care and happy fishing :p
 

vermillion

Member
The only damsels I would ever trust in a reef tank is a green chromis damsel. They are great fish and never bother anything, other than that I would never have a damsel in my tank unless it was an all aggresive fish only tank.
 
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