# Damsels?



## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

my family and i just started a tank adn we were told by the pet store people that damsels were good starter fish. Now that our tank has cycled and all of that jazz we want to put new fish in. Now we are being told that the damsels are very aggressive and will kill all the other fish. We have a 75g tank. Really want to see what everybody else thinks about it before we start putting 25 dollar fish in it.


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## Guest (Mar 22, 2005)

damsels are indeed very aggressive. I had one that i raised from a small baby, and then it wasnt aggressive but now its a little monster. Ive had to seperate it from my other fish and put it in a breeder until i get my other sw tank set up.
if you want good starter fish, id go with a percula clownfish or an occecellous (dunno how to spell it) clownfish. if also get a couple lawnmower blennies and maybe a yellow tang. There are many possibilities out there. but unless you want a tank of all damsels, i wouldnt risk getting one.


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

we have three different types the domino damsels, the black adn white stripe damsels and the yellow tail damsels. someone told us that the yellow tails arent quite as aggressive. anyway i think we are actually gonna go with the live rock and find a way to get rid of the damsels.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Do it! Get rid of all of them! They will terrorize peaceful fish until they die... I'd suggest cardinalfish, chromis, dartfish, clownfish, blennys, dwarf angels (but not right away, established tank only) and gobys... check out my posts "Fish FOR beginners" and "Fish NOT for beginners"


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

thanks for clearing that up ill check out you other posts


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

yea fishfirst got the handle, and after u get that liverock in the tank, be prepared to tearing the dang tank apart to catch the damsels, they are very very quick and manuevarable. I would start out with couple clowns then couple weeks later, get something else...wanna stay away from blennies and gobies for another month or so, so your pod population can grow some, in case your blenny or goby has a hard time adapting to frozen foods.


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## Hickers (Mar 25, 2005)

I agree, domino damsels look great but they will cause havoc in the tank, as Fishfirst stated Chromis are excellent beginner fish.

Regards 

Hickers


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

we just put in some clowns and some crabs last night. we made sure that the cucci(dont know how to spell it[they're yellow]) clowns were bigger than the others. THe damsels have given them no problems bacuase they are so small.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Don't be fooled by the temperary peace... things WILL get ugly... I had my two iddy bitty damsels tear my royal grammas tail to shreds, and push my clownfish cowering to the top farthest corner of the tank before I seperated them... At first everything was alright (for the first few weeks) then, all hell broke lose


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

well we already decided that if the damsels to start to reek havok on the other fish then we would take them out. 



by the way..... we are planning on getting some live rock and then eventually some coral. what coral should we get? what fish would be good for us? we have a 75g tank with the protein skimmer . will we need any other epuipment? will we need special food for these new fish? 

Keep in mind we are trying to keep our tank colorful and lively.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

for corals I'd go with mushrooms, polyps, and softs... they need less light than the hards, and are still nicely colored. Yet they still need a lot of light, florcent compacts are a must... (VHO's and Halides are options too) you need about 4-5 watts per gallon before you can get these corals or they will just wither away like a plant without any sunlight. I'd get some live rock and cure it in a rubbermaid container with a powerhead for a couple weeks so you don't have a bunch of die off in your tank. Also you can get base rock and seed it with live rock so you get all live rock. www.hirocks.com is a good place to get your base rock for a good price. I'd get a 4-1 ratio of base rock to live rock and about a total of 75-100lbs of it. Feeding Clarkii? clownfish shouldn't be that hard... if you have flakes or pellets they will gladly accept these, plus shrimp and fish you buy at the grocery store is good for them too.


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## Hickers (Mar 25, 2005)

Also a feather duster is a nice addition...

Hickers


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

what about anemeonies. i really like those. they would be good for the clown fish right.?


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## Hickers (Mar 25, 2005)

Depends

The chances are the clown fish would not interact with the anemeonies, unless you are lucky. Your clownfish could be tank bred so it is a bit of a misconception that they would. Most clown fish are excellent begginer fish, (but I did have a pair of baby common clowns that were bullied to death by Domino damsel).

Regards

Hickers


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

anemones are not for the average aquarist... it takes a massive amount of lighting for most anemones... they just plain don't do well without it. I would highly recomend not getting one until your feet are well in the water... say in 4-5 years.


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

yah maybe we should wait...


anyway. we went to the fish place and i saw one of those gobys. those are probably the coolest looking fish ive ever seen. it kept digging adn spitting the sand out. i figured that we should get one of those cause right now we have a lot of top and middle of the tank fish but no bottom fish. just hermit crabs. i think that one goby and a blenny would do nicely..what do you think?


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## wrasser (Apr 5, 2005)

sully01 hows the tank going for you?


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## Guest (Apr 7, 2005)

what kind of goby?


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

the tank is actually going great right now. we got some base rock and put it in there and it looks really nice. as soon as we get some live rock and get it all cured i think it will look nice

as for the goby i dont know i couldnt find the tag for it. (you know how at like petco they have the fish in the tank and the name of it on the outside) but it was really entertaining watching it dig in the sand


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## sully01 (Mar 22, 2005)

just put in some new fish
butterfly and a yellow spotted goby

really nice

tank is doing great


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