The damsel debate...leave or retrieve???

[reefin_with_jesus]

Ok, I currently have a 90-gallon tank with only a yellow-tail damsel, a few green chromises and 30 lbs of LR. I plan on making this into a reef tank, but before I get anymore LR I've decided to put in a DSB. I'm doing this on Tuesday and my question is, should I remove the yellow-tail while I'm messing around with the tank? I do like the little guy, but he is aggressive to the other tankmates. I keep telling myself that when I get all my LR in there and everyone has good hiding places, then he'll do fine. Am I living in a dream world, or is there any truth to that? I plan on maybe having a dwarf angel, a tang or two, a hawk of some sort, a royal gramma, and a couple other community fish. Do you guys think he'll continue to be aggressive to the new additions? Should I just yank him out now before it gets too difficult? Thanks all. Lance.

 

[dburr]

I have a 3 stripe that would go after my new additions every time I put one in. After about a week he would calm down and set a pecking order.
My last couple additions he never bothered with.
If you like him, just watch him with new additions. I think the more fish you have, it will just calm him down. He wont know which one to bully. IMO
HTH good luck

 

[reefin_with_jesus]

That's what I would like to do. Thanks for the support.

 

[chevron tang]

just remember though if you decide to leave him in there and you add more lr and then he starts picking on your new additions than it will may it harder than heck to get him out unless you tear down your rock fixture.

 

[reefin_with_jesus]

I know, that's why I was debating taking him out now. I don't think I can bring myself to do it, though. I have to at least give him a chance.

 

[karlas]

if you like him i would give him a chance. i had a yellow tail and thought he was cool but he started picking on my firefish, but left the chromises alone. so i decided to take him back, because the ff are the ones i originally decided on. as far as the dwarf angel and hawk they can hold their own and can come a little aggressive themselves. and the royal gramma is supposed to be sort of a scrappy species and could probably hold his own. anything after that i would check into thougly for compatability before buying. good luck

 

[broomer5]

I kept my yellow tail - first fish I bought - and still have. It's in a 75 now with a big clarkii, firefish, royal gramma and a bangaii cardinal.
It's fairly mellow - and does not cause any harm, not too aggressive I guess.
BUT .....
If I had to do it all over again .... I would probably not have grown attached to the little guy in the first place, and removed him along with some other fish. My girlfriend has some influence in this department too.
It's a hit or miss.

 

[volitan]

I've got two three- striped damsels that I started the tank with. They are good looking fish and add alot of character to the tank. My lfs told me that though damsels are very teritorial, they're dumb as a box of hair. When you add new fish to the tank, take a couple of pieces of lr and rearrange them a bit. To the damsels, the surrounding are different, so they think they must be in a new territory. So they have to reestablish their territory, and will show no aggression to their tankmates in doing so. So far, in my experience, I can't really tell if this works or not, because my damsels never were very aggressive in the first place. Try it if you decide to keep the damsels. HTH

 

[gabbys125reef]

I think you should keep it, everyone will get used to each other. I have a purple, yellow and naso tang and they all adjusted to each other. Give him a chance.
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[jakob4001]

I'd keep it if you like it...it does add color & character to your tank..we have 2 that spawn regularly & become territorial to that area of course...they are in there w/ maroon clown, yellow tang, coral beauty, & a mandarin & various inverts...now if YOU try to put your hands in THEIR territory, than it's on <img src="graemlins//evilwhorn.gif" border="0" alt="[Evil Horn]" />

 

[eeyrg]

Originally posted by chevron tang:
<strong>just remember though if you decide to leave him in there and you add more lr and then he starts picking on your new additions than it will may it harder than heck to get him out unless you tear down your rock fixture.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah. What he said.
I had 2 damsels. Notice I said "had."
It took me about 2 hours to break down the tank and catch them. They weren't falling for the "bait the net" trick.
Although I still think they're beautiful fish, they were terrorizing my other fish. Not to mention they were fat from eating most of the food, first. <img src="graemlins//uhuh.gif" border="0" alt="[U-Huh]" />

 

[safaripilot]

Damsels are EVIL. Catch and kill all you can find. I am down to five and can't wait until they die. Impossible to catch and agressive to everything put in the tank. I just put in a large tomato clown and it is showing them who the dominant fish is now. I love it. I'm thinking of pulling the clown out and getting a Huma trigger for a couple days to take out the rest of the damsels.