Why damsels are among my favorite fish for a 100g tank...

[Sk8r]

1. They're active. They nip, but rarely connect, no ripped fins and they rarely seriously chase anything but another damsel. I had a 100 g damsel tank: had a blue devil, 5 chromises, a sergeant major, a blue velvet, a domino, a three-stripe, I think it was...and 2 clarkii clowns, (which are damsels.) The ONLY fish that gave me grief (and that bit ME) were the clarkiis. I ended up finding a home for them. But I kept the damsels. They never harmed any other fish, including some small and fragile blennies and gobies and dragonets. Which is more than I can say for the clarkiis...who drew blood, nipped fins, etc.

2. They're the cheapest incredible color you can get. The dominant of any set tends to have high color, so if you don't get but one of everything, you tend to have brighter colors. Incredible blues, blue/yellow, stripes, spots, black/whites, dots, and the glittery blue and green chromides, plus the (spendy) Garbaldi, which is orange to red, but gets large. And move? they're in constant motion.

3. They're entirely reef-safe. They like krill and regular fishfood. They don't bother corals---their rowdiness might frag a soft stony like montipora, but with lps or softies, they're perfectly safe.

4. They're hardy. Use your corals as a barometer of water quality; if they close up, you need to check your alk. Damsels, however, just get cranky, little different than their usual disposition---but they'll survive nearly anything. They can get ich, and should be qt'd, but they don't get it as readily as many other fish. Plus if anything survives a bad outbreak, they're likely to. Not fussy eaters, either.

5. They never stop moving. You'll notice their presence may encourage other species to believe the coast is clear. And they're out and at it, looking for food, as the lights come on.

They're NOT appropriate for smaller tanks, and WILL aggress if crowded---as will most fish; most reports of genuinely bad behavior come from tanks under 100g, and from several species which are known PITAs (the blue velvet, eg, which is beautiful, but tends to dominate). I have only two damsels, now, both of smaller and less aggressive species, in a 55. They really need a 100 g to show to best advantage. But if you've got the space, they're a great fish.

[tiffyreefer]

I don't know why no one responded, but I agree! I once saw a tank with only blue damsels in it. Gorgeous

[joshik]

yeh, i really like the blue damsels. we had them in an office i was in years ago and i loved em. they are fairly cheap too. my gf loves them and im going to be getting some soon for my tank.

i was looking thru the socal FTS thread and used it as my wallpaper bc it looked so good! love the "clean" look with the damsels.

[aquaman05]

I thought you couldn't keep more than one together on the chromis because they would they would kill each other? I was wanting some of the blue green ones to put in my tank

[DustinB]

I had a blue damsel before and it was the worst thing I've ever had in my tank. I had to remove it when he kept chasing around, biting, and trying to bury my dragon goby. He would not stop messing with the goby, no matter where the goby tried to hide. The goby had shredded fins and looked like it was about to have a heart attack.

If you have any fish that will show any amount of fear I would not get a blue damsel or most any damsel for that matter. IME they will test everything, if anything backs down they will pester that fish non-stop. It tried to go after my ocellaris pair but they wouldn't budge when the damsel darted at them, so he lost interest.

[joshik]

oh yeh?

i just got a new-to-me strawberry wrasse who seems like a scaredy-cat. he's been hiding for the past day. he might get picked on.... ill see how he does in the next few days.

Originally Posted by DustinB

I had a blue damsel before and it was the worst thing I've ever had in my tank. I had to remove it when he kept chasing around, biting, and trying to bury my dragon goby. He would not stop messing with the goby, no matter where the goby tried to hide. The goby had shredded fins and looked like it was about to have a heart attack.

If you have any fish that will show any amount of fear I would not get a blue damsel or most any damsel for that matter. IME they will test everything, if anything backs down they will pester that fish non-stop. It tried to go after my ocellaris pair but they wouldn't budge when the damsel darted at them, so he lost interest.

[stingythingy45]

I hated my blue damsel.
Darn thing was constantly digging and making a mess of the tank.

[kingfisher62]

I always like to keep one yellow tail blue damsel in my 55g . Where can you find a more beautiful fish for five dollars?
I have often thought of having an all damsel tank. It is too bad that some loose their juvinel colors.

[seapug]

They definitely are hardy active fish that can have some really nice colors, but they are just too damn mean for me.

The first fish I put in my tank was a half dead baby yellow damsel I got as a rescue. It was so badly burned by ammonia it had no fins. 4.5 years later it's 3 inches long and repays me for saving its life by drawing blood from my arm every time I'm working in the tank. Some day I will catch that fish.

[joshik]

gee wiz...they are that mean? O___O

[Sk8r]

When you say 'blue damsel' that covers a LOT of territory: there is the Fiji Blue Devil, the yellowtail blue, the azure blue [tail and belly are yellow], blue REEF chromis, blue chromis, and green chromis. The blue devil is one of the most aggressive damsels. Much further down the scale is the azure blue, and below the azure in aggression are all the chromises.

How many chromises you can keep depends on tank size. And how many damsels, ditto. I am having no trouble with one chromis (blue) and one azure and a yellow gramma. No fighting, just some territory statement.

I have had a tank with a Blue Devil, but I also had a Blue Velvet (actually a black fish with a blue stripe), a Sergeant-Major, a Domino, and chromises...plus various small blennies, gobies, and dragonettes, that they never picked on at all: royally ignored them. It was a 100 g reef, and I had no aggression troubles from any of the fish except one mistake---a yellow dottyback: THAT one was the alltime prize for mean, except for my clarkii clown pair, which had teeth, and routinely drew blood when I had my hands in the tank.

Tank size and careful selection matter. You're talking about one of the most basic and tough reef fishes there is---in huge variety: they don't all act alike, except they all do like as much room as they can get, and if they are cornered, you betcha they will fight. Unfortunately, they are often put in too great numbers into too small a tank. Mine are doing quite nicely, each has staked out a territory and a sleeping spot, and they're so busy keeping an eye on each other, they have no time to bother with harassing the other fish.

[DustinB]

Mine was the fiji blue devil. Never heard anyone refer to any other damsel as a blue damsel.

[Angel*Fish]

Joshik, your tank is beautiful!

I think it would help if we just started using the scientific name for them. Just in my S.Michael book I found 4 damsels that are all blue and 6 if you count the two blue chromis fish, scotti and cyanea (I'm not counting viridis) Some are terrors and some are peaceful. I think they range in size from 2-4 inches which pretty important also.

[Sk8r]

You aren't kidding. I'd love to start a damsel thread with pix, so that people actually know what they're buying, which get the size of a salad plate (dominos) and which stay relatively small. People say damsel as if that covered everything, but there are soooooo many types and sizes. Not to mention---Nemo was a damsel, and so was his dad. There's been a whole lot of misinformation about them, and they're really more peaceful than many tangs and rabbits---the one having a slashing weapon and the other having a venomed spike. They're more like an angelfish in disposition, without the coral nipping habit, so there's a lot to recommend them for those tanks that want a lot of fast-moving color but aren't big enough for the large reef fishes. It's a case of a hobby talking itself out of what could be the best solution for many, many midrange tanks.

[seapug]

Originally Posted by joshik

gee wiz...they are that mean? O___O

The yellow ones are, especially when they get old..... at least mine is. I have scars to prove it. I was going to tear the whole tank down to catch the little bugger, but once I put a Purple Tang in, the damsel was no longer Alpha fish. The Tang actually intervenes when the damsel starts bullying other fish. Just wish it would do the same when the damsel is freaking out on my arm.

[Bigez]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

You aren't kidding. I'd love to start a damsel thread with pix, so that people actually know what they're buying, which get the size of a salad plate (dominos) and which stay relatively small. People say damsel as if that covered everything, but there are soooooo many types and sizes. Not to mention---Nemo was a damsel, and so was his dad. There's been a whole lot of misinformation about them, and they're really more peaceful than many tangs and rabbits---the one having a slashing weapon and the other having a venomed spike. They're more like an angelfish in disposition, without the coral nipping habit, so there's a lot to recommend them for those tanks that want a lot of fast-moving color but aren't big enough for the large reef fishes. It's a case of a hobby talking itself out of what could be the best solution for many, many midrange tanks.

I'd love to see a thread like that, it would actually help a lot with my decision on what I should add to my 100gallon. Maybe make the target tank of the thread a 100 gallon...

[joshik]

Originally Posted by Angel*Fish

Joshik, your tank is beautiful!

I think it would help if we just started using the scientific name for them. Just in my S.Michael book I found 4 damsels that are all blue and 6 if you count the two blue chromis fish, scotti and cyanea (I'm not counting viridis) Some are terrors and some are peaceful. I think they range in size from 2-4 inches which pretty important also.

OH NO! That's not my tank! I WISH IT WAS MY TANK!!!!!

I just posted it bc i was admiring it and the blue damsels.

Mine will someday look like that!

[RenoR1]

I guess I just must have angry damsels then. I had two bright blue ones (what are those, like "lightning blue damsel" or something) That i had to get rid of because they acted like sharks in a feeding frenzy if I added a new fish. They never let anyone else eat, and dominated the whole 55G.

I kept my zebra striped when I upgraded....but yesterday I caught him nipping at my birdsnest!!!!

[sneeyatch]

I'll be adding a small school of Azure damsels to my display - last.

[jeff@zina.com]

I also like damsels, but really only in schools. In my mind, the only thing that beats a school of chromis is a pair of clowns. And schools only look right if there's plenty of room to swim.

Jeff

[Sk8r]

Here's a Google link to a batch of different ones: http://www.google.com/images?q=damse...w=1280&bih=608
that I hope works. Mousing over a pic should give you a name, at least.

The meanest, and one of the prettiest, that I ever had, was the blue velvet damsel, black with a white band and blue V stripe over the eyes. Everything moved over for that gal.

The threestripe, domino, and yellowtails were exemplary citizens. The Fiji blue devil was second only to the blue velvet.

And if you think all damsels are cheap---price a Garibaldi! But they're not tiny, either: definitely a big tank fish.

[samdaman]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Here's a Google link to a batch of different ones: http://www.google.com/images?q=damse...w=1280&bih=608
that I hope works. Mousing over a pic should give you a name, at least.

The meanest, and one of the prettiest, that I ever had, was the blue velvet damsel, black with a white band and blue V stripe over the eyes. Everything moved over for that gal.

The threestripe, domino, and yellowtails were exemplary citizens. The Fiji blue devil was second only to the blue velvet.

And if you think all damsels are cheap---price a Garibaldi! But they're not tiny, either: definitely a big tank fish.

In have one of those. he is in a 55 gal. Alone. Im moving him to the 125 once my trigger gets bigger because the damsel wants to be top dog because he iis double the size of my trigger. And well my trigger did not take that kindly.The velvet is a good 4 inches I'll try and get a pic. Right now I have a 3 stripe that befriended my trigger, the damsel when first introduced tried to scare the trigger, but he just ignored him.

[Harry_Y]

Very Interesting!

[samdaman]

its crazy when you see them so small at LFS.



Sand Storm:



Re-arranging:

[Sk8r]

Yep, that's a blue velvet, and a pretty one!

Usually in a group of damsels of same species, by my observation, one will have the brightest color. In a group of mixed damsels, you tend to get some nice coloration from most.