The hated Damsel

[DeeOooGee]

I purchased my first "real" fish for my tank today. I had a blue damsel in
there for the past 3 months. I love the new Firefish! The Damsel
immediately started backing into it and then I saw him go after him. I have
a 46 G tank with 45lbs of LR, so there are many hiding places. This damsel
was going to go back to the LFS, but after this run around I am ready to
throw him down the toilet. I hate him and if I could give anyone advice it
would be to never buy a damsel regardless of the situation. Ughhhh

[RJAG]

couldn't agree more with you. I had a couple of Fijian damsels (everyone
told me about their calm nature compared to other damsels) and they were
terrors and very bloody hard to get out of a reef. anyone thinking of
buying a couple make sure your other inhabitants aren't to easily bullied.

Robin

[Rich R]

mine went to the sump and I like him there, they are great looking in the
reef but its not cool watching them beat the crap out of the calm fish

--


www.reeftanksonline.com
www.nydiver.com
ONLINE meeting rooms



"RJAG" > wrote in message
...
> couldn't agree more with you. I had a couple of Fijian damsels (everyone
> told me about their calm nature compared to other damsels) and they were
> terrors and very bloody hard to get out of a reef. anyone thinking of
> buying a couple make sure your other inhabitants aren't to easily bullied.
>
> Robin
>

[kryppy]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:49:26 GMT, "DeeOooGee"
> wrote:

>I purchased my first "real" fish for my tank today. I had a blue damsel in
>there for the past 3 months. I love the new Firefish! The Damsel
>immediately started backing into it and then I saw him go after him. I have
>a 46 G tank with 45lbs of LR, so there are many hiding places. This damsel
>was going to go back to the LFS, but after this run around I am ready to
>throw him down the toilet. I hate him and if I could give anyone advice it
>would be to never buy a damsel regardless of the situation. Ughhhh
>


It was his tank, what did you expect. :)

I have a pair of beau gregory damsels that get along well with my
black grouper. Maybe it is because he was there first.

[Aquacare]

That's why they are nick named "Blue Devils". Blue damsels are basically
fearless and if used to cycle an aquarium should definitely be removed prior
to placing expensive species.

[Billy]

"Marc Levenson" > wrote in message
m...
|I still have my two blue damsels. One is 7 years old.
| They aren't so tough in my 280g, with the sizable tangs in
| the area. :D


My single yellow-tail damn-sel (since banished to the sump) endlessly
tormented a young Naso (since sold) that was at least 5x bigger than
him....


Terrible little critters. I'll never buy another. Perhaps food for
the crabs. <eg>

billy

[Rich R]

I think I should invent a mini spear gun!!!

--


www.reeftanksonline.com
www.nydiver.com
ONLINE meeting rooms



"Rich R" > wrote in message
...
> mine went to the sump and I like him there, they are great looking in the
> reef but its not cool watching them beat the crap out of the calm fish
>
> --
>
>
> www.reeftanksonline.com
> www.nydiver.com
> ONLINE meeting rooms
>
>
>
> "RJAG" > wrote in message
> ...
>> couldn't agree more with you. I had a couple of Fijian damsels (everyone
>> told me about their calm nature compared to other damsels) and they were
>> terrors and very bloody hard to get out of a reef. anyone thinking of
>> buying a couple make sure your other inhabitants aren't to easily
>> bullied.
>>
>> Robin
>>
>
>
>

[Marc Levenson]

You are asking the wrong guy. :)

I had a 29g for 7 years and made my 7 fish get along. LOL
My 55g had 9 fish cohabitating.

Then I merged those with the fish that came with my 280g,
leaving me with 28 fish at one point. Currently I believe I
have 24 or 25 fish. http://www.melevsreef.com/280g.html

One blue damsel sleeps in a hole in the rockwork right above
the BTA and mated clownfish, and they chase him away a lot.
Yet every night he goes back to that spot.

I do know that at one point all my clownfish were chasing
the 7 yr old Percula, and that was a 6' long tank. The poor
fish never got a chance to rest, much to my dismay. So I
captured the ring-leader (female ocellaris) and gave it
away, and peace returned to my tank.

Marc


Kevin & Donna Sanders, M.D. wrote:
> Is there a magic size of the tank where issues like this are no longer (less
> of ) a problem because everybody has their space? Example if you have a
> 500-1000Gal. tank and then you can begin to mix similar colored/shaped
> species or even a blue devil or two?
>
> Kevin
> "Marc Levenson" > wrote in message
> m...
>
>>I still have my two blue damsels. One is 7 years old. They aren't so tough
>>in my 280g, with the sizable tangs in the area. :D
>>
>>Marc

--
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Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
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[selgado]

Man I wish I could have gotten to you before you went through all that.
There is a simple DIY trap that you can build yourself that I have had
a lot of success with. Especially with greedy damsels.

>
>
> I tried for over an hour to catch him. I finally took out about 30lbs of my
> 45lbs of LR and caught him. I took a breather and called a friend before I
> removed the LR, so I was calmed down a bit and didn't kill him. I brought
> him down to the lfs and hoped that their big fish would chase him as he did
> my firefish. They were happy to have him :-)!
>
> I came back with only 15 minutes to spare before I went on my road trip to
> Louisville KY. I thought about how bad my LR aquascaping looked for about
> the next hour in the car. Then when I came back last night I had brown
> algae all over the place. I must have "mixed" it up pretty good.
>
> That damsel would still be in there if I had not taken my live rock out.
> And now (maybe I'm paranoid) it seems like my purple coralline algae is not
> as prominent and colorful as before. I just wonder if I sent my 3 month old
> tank back 5 steps after this ordeal. Next time I need to catch a fish he
> is going to meet my ugly stick. I'm not kidding either. I'll not move LR
> again, I'll just move some things in the basement and find my fishing pole.
>
>

[Xerces]

I have a blue Devil and a Cerulean Blue damsel in my 66. The only ones
that they bother are each other. The little Cerulean beats the crap
out of the Devil (3 x her size!) Pretty fish with little man'
syndrome! I love mine!

[selgado]

Too bad they don't make fish sedatives!!

Xerces wrote:
> I have a blue Devil and a Cerulean Blue damsel in my 66. The only ones
> that they bother are each other. The little Cerulean beats the crap
> out of the Devil (3 x her size!) Pretty fish with little man'
> syndrome! I love mine!

[Xerces]

There is a good pic of the little darling in my album (among others!)

http://community.webshots.com/user/xercesjpf


On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 21:15:48 -0500, selgado > wrote:

>Too bad they don't make fish sedatives!!
>
>Xerces wrote:
>> I have a blue Devil and a Cerulean Blue damsel in my 66. The only ones
>> that they bother are each other. The little Cerulean beats the crap
>> out of the Devil (3 x her size!) Pretty fish with little man'
>> syndrome! I love mine!

[JWL]

So can you tell us how to make this fish trap?

Thanks - John

"selgado" > wrote in message
...
> Man I wish I could have gotten to you before you went through all that.
> There is a simple DIY trap that you can build yourself that I have had a
> lot of success with. Especially with greedy damsels.
>
>>
>>
>> I tried for over an hour to catch him. I finally took out about 30lbs of
>> my
>> 45lbs of LR and caught him. I took a breather and called a friend before
>> I
>> removed the LR, so I was calmed down a bit and didn't kill him. I
>> brought
>> him down to the lfs and hoped that their big fish would chase him as he
>> did
>> my firefish. They were happy to have him :-)!
>>
>> I came back with only 15 minutes to spare before I went on my road trip
>> to
>> Louisville KY. I thought about how bad my LR aquascaping looked for
>> about
>> the next hour in the car. Then when I came back last night I had brown
>> algae all over the place. I must have "mixed" it up pretty good.
>>
>> That damsel would still be in there if I had not taken my live rock out.
>> And now (maybe I'm paranoid) it seems like my purple coralline algae is
>> not
>> as prominent and colorful as before. I just wonder if I sent my 3 month
>> old
>> tank back 5 steps after this ordeal. Next time I need to catch a fish
>> he
>> is going to meet my ugly stick. I'm not kidding either. I'll not move
>> LR
>> again, I'll just move some things in the basement and find my fishing
>> pole.
>>

[Charles Spitzer]

cut the top off a 2 liter soda bottle large enough to make a hole that the
fish in question can get in. cut the bottle where it starts to get straight.
invert the cut off piece. tie a piece of fishing line to a small hole in the
top rim of the nested pieces. place bait into the bottom part and submerge
tilted over. when the fish goes in, pull the line to tilt so the entrance
hole is on the top.

"JWL" > wrote in message
...
> So can you tell us how to make this fish trap?
>
> Thanks - John
>
> "selgado" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Man I wish I could have gotten to you before you went through all that.
>> There is a simple DIY trap that you can build yourself that I have had a
>> lot of success with. Especially with greedy damsels.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I tried for over an hour to catch him. I finally took out about 30lbs
>>> of my
>>> 45lbs of LR and caught him. I took a breather and called a friend
>>> before I
>>> removed the LR, so I was calmed down a bit and didn't kill him. I
>>> brought
>>> him down to the lfs and hoped that their big fish would chase him as he
>>> did
>>> my firefish. They were happy to have him :-)!
>>>
>>> I came back with only 15 minutes to spare before I went on my road trip
>>> to
>>> Louisville KY. I thought about how bad my LR aquascaping looked for
>>> about
>>> the next hour in the car. Then when I came back last night I had brown
>>> algae all over the place. I must have "mixed" it up pretty good.
>>>
>>> That damsel would still be in there if I had not taken my live rock out.
>>> And now (maybe I'm paranoid) it seems like my purple coralline algae is
>>> not
>>> as prominent and colorful as before. I just wonder if I sent my 3 month
>>> old
>>> tank back 5 steps after this ordeal. Next time I need to catch a fish
>>> he
>>> is going to meet my ugly stick. I'm not kidding either. I'll not move
>>> LR
>>> again, I'll just move some things in the basement and find my fishing
>>> pole.
>>>
>

[selgado]

That's it. And be sure to use fishing line. I've found that thicker
lines tend to distract the fish and make them more leary of the
contraption. Also be sure not to make an unneccessarily large hole.
The less chance of escape when you pull the line the better. And it
always helps for you to be as far away from the tank as possible -
preferably out of sight all together. It helps to have something to do
while you are waiting. You might get him in 5 minutes or it might take
an hour or two.

Charles Spitzer wrote:
> cut the top off a 2 liter soda bottle large enough to make a hole that the
> fish in question can get in. cut the bottle where it starts to get straight.
> invert the cut off piece. tie a piece of fishing line to a small hole in the
> top rim of the nested pieces. place bait into the bottom part and submerge
> tilted over. when the fish goes in, pull the line to tilt so the entrance
> hole is on the top.
>
> "JWL" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>So can you tell us how to make this fish trap?
>>
>>Thanks - John
>>
>>"selgado" > wrote in message
...
>>
>>>Man I wish I could have gotten to you before you went through all that.
>>>There is a simple DIY trap that you can build yourself that I have had a
>>>lot of success with. Especially with greedy damsels.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>I tried for over an hour to catch him. I finally took out about 30lbs
>>>>of my
>>>>45lbs of LR and caught him. I took a breather and called a friend
>>>>before I
>>>>removed the LR, so I was calmed down a bit and didn't kill him. I
>>>>brought
>>>>him down to the lfs and hoped that their big fish would chase him as he
>>>>did
>>>>my firefish. They were happy to have him :-)!
>>>>
>>>>I came back with only 15 minutes to spare before I went on my road trip
>>>>to
>>>>Louisville KY. I thought about how bad my LR aquascaping looked for
>>>>about
>>>>the next hour in the car. Then when I came back last night I had brown
>>>>algae all over the place. I must have "mixed" it up pretty good.
>>>>
>>>>That damsel would still be in there if I had not taken my live rock out.
>>>>And now (maybe I'm paranoid) it seems like my purple coralline algae is
>>>>not
>>>>as prominent and colorful as before. I just wonder if I sent my 3 month
>>>>old
>>>>tank back 5 steps after this ordeal. Next time I need to catch a fish
>>>>he
>>>>is going to meet my ugly stick. I'm not kidding either. I'll not move
>>>>LR
>>>>again, I'll just move some things in the basement and find my fishing
>>>>pole.
>>>>
>>
>
>