Damsels - A love affair

[Fish]

After three years of being in this hobby I have realized that my favorite fish just might be the one that we all started out with. True, they can be a real pain in the butt and bother everyone else in the tank (in my 90 I had a yellow tail blue ($5 fish) kill a juvenile blue tang ($50 fish). If you have the right spot for them though, they are great. I moved my maroon clown to the sump until I can get it to rodsboys up in Edmonton and bought two new damsels at Big Al's sale. Now I have a yellow-bellied blue, 3-stripe, and domino as the only fish in my 20gal display.
These little guys are colorful, tough as nails, and are always out in the open in the water column (and they never knock over my frags like the clown did). Another bonus to a damsel-only tank is that you don't worry as much about one fish picking on another one - because, chances are, it had it coming :razz: .

- Chad

[AJ_77]

Funny - we have a Yellow-tail that has been in 4 or 5 different tanks since we got it. It is usually the first fish people notice, and point to - "oooooh."

:mrgreen:

[Bob I]

In a 24" tank I am afraid that wars will ensue. Let us know how you make out please. :eek:

[Fish]

Everyone seems pretty settled now. The medium sized domino can't get too close to the larger yellow-belly's corner and the small sized 3-stripe gives them both a wide berth.
Of course, moving the 4 inch clown to the 20gal sump has sure freed up some claimable territory.
I'll let you know how it goes.

- Chad

[rodsboys]

I have to confess,I love the damsels too.So many different colors and such spunk.Like you said they have their place though.
I worked at a LFS in Virginia a few years ago and I use to love to see the damsels people returned for trade-ins.Some of them were HUGE.We use to keep the big ones as store pets in the live rock ponds.You could see them once in a while darting in and out of the ever changing rock formations.
I broke down and went to Big Al's sale and picked up a blue yellow tail and a 4-stripe for my 29 gallon.They are in there with my false perc's.I have been having such bad luck lately with fish,I figured I can't go wrong with a few damsels.

[Fish]

haha... so true, I have seen first hand how resiliant these guys can be.
I've never seen any that were close to full size before, that would be pretty cool.
There was a guy on Reef Central (I think) who's quote said: "If damsels were the size of sharks, the sharks would flee in terror" (or something like that)
- Chad

[Tarolisol]

Big Als has a blue velvet damsel or somthing like it that is massive ive never seen one that big before. Probly 4 inches or so and fat really fat.

[Ryan]

I was in big als in september and i didnt see it? I seen the awsome dwarf lionfish and the shark tank i was also hoping to see a tank full of percs or ocellaris but i didnt get to see that either. O well. I must confess the i love damsels too whether it is the damsels everyone B$%^hs about or it is the green chromis or clownfish i love them all. I once had a massive 3 inch yellowback and velvet they were mean.