Damsel Aggression Story...

[Brian5000]

I bought a yellow-tail damsel as my first fish ever because I understood them to be a nice first fish, and actually, I have to agree. It is a nice, active, pretty little fish. I also understood it to be the least aggressive of that genera, which may be true (I don't know), but it's still an agressively territorial creature. I found this out when I tried to add a perc. clown a couple days ago. Any time the clown entered the damsels percieved territory, it flared it fins and batted the clown away with it's tail. It never hurts the clown, but it still asserts itself strongly. I tried rearranging the rocks a bit to "confuse" the damsel, but that really didn't work since the entire tank (29 gal.) is it's territory. So after I cleaned up that mess, I just sort of hoped for the best. Since then the damsel has at least learned to tollerate the clown and leaves it alone as long as it stays in the left tenth of the tank. The clown seems ok, but I still feel sorry for it being a prisoner in such a small space.
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[bckane]

Im in the same boat, I have a domino damsel who thinks he is the king of the world. I have tried for weeks to get the fish out of the tank, he is just too smart. Im ready to buy 2 clown fish but I dont want to put thewm in till I get the fish out.......He is the only fish in the tank except for the 2 peppermint shrimp I have...but they stay away from him...Good luck

 

[ElMonoCalvo]

I've had to tear apart my tank to get a domino damsel out. I added the domino and a maroon clown at the same time and after a while the domino tore up the clown so bad it wouldn't come out from behind one of the powerheads. So the liverock came out, the domino caught and returned to the LFS.

 

[Brian5000]

Fortunately, I know exactly where my damsel hides when it's scared. It's a small hole with no rear enterance, so think I can trap it there and get it out with 1 rock easily enough. But I like the little guy, I hate to give it back.
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[SpicyBalls]

maybe you can setup a separate tank for the yellow tail, add all necessary fish, move the rockwork around, and then add the yellow tail back... i have two yellow tails in my 44 gallon... they are aggressive, but def not as aggressive as you say your fish is.. i added mine almost last...
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[Brian5000]

I tried to rearrange the rocks; it didn't work, and I don't have another tank to put it in. I think part of my problem is that the clown is the only other fish in the tank, and it's about the same size. I assume that, being the last fish in your tank, it had at least a couple different fish to displace aggression. So I think I have two options: return one of the fish; or buy another one or two to displace damsel aggression. What do you think?
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[SpicyBalls]

i think the damsel may bully the new fish too.. it's used to the territory and has setup dominance over it's land... pretty cruel thing to do, but do you have a breeding/display tank? the one's you put inside the main tank, hang on or otherwise?.. maybe you can put the damsel in there for a few days.. rearrange the rock work.. let the other fish get situated and then release the damsel. there's is def no guarantee as i;ve done that before with my blue damsel and it just went back to it's aggressive self.. lastly, as you said, just return the damsel...
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