30 Gallon Aquarium

Added the first inhabitants to my tank recently:

 

Looking good! Oddly enough, those were the first two fish I started my very first tank with, 10 years ago. The blue damsel died a few months ago, and the yellow tail is still around, happy as ever in my current tank.

 

Yeah, I thought that since they were both listed as "semi-agressive" and they were the hardiest of fish they would be a good first addition. However, the yellow tail has basically been relegated to one corner of the tank and the blue is ensuring he keeps control of all of the rock. Will this get better over time? Or is there anything else I should do?

My rock is setup with a ton of hiding spaces, but of the 50 pounds of it...the Blue Damsel controls it all.

Any suggestions?

 

normally, you put agressive fish in last. I got told to leave a damsel till last by my lfs. Just see how things go, it might not change, but it might change in the next few days as well, depends on your luck

good luck!!!

 

It likely won't improve. Blue damsels are notoriously aggressive. The yellow tail is lucky it's still alive if the blue damsel is being pushy. They are known to fight until they are the last fish alive in the tank.

 

Awesome. So, suggested course of action? Remove the blue damsel from the tank?

 

Does the yellow tail need to go as well?

Also, the orchid dottyback that I was planning on is listed as "semi-agressive" as well. Should I expect the same behavior from him?

 

Alright, so the blue devil is out of the tank but in the process I had to remove all of my live rock. I'm hoping that I managed to avoid killing any snails or crabs in the process, but I'm not hopeful. Damn depressing afternoon really.

I opted to not remove the yellow tail damsel, so here's hoping he's not an a**hole too.

Right now, the tank is pretty cloudy from stirring up the substrate while putting the live rock back in...but I'll test the water tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will still be ammonia free. If I killed a snail/crab in this process, how long will it take for the ammonia to be noticeable?

 

The snails and crabs should be fine as long as they werent out of the water for too long. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

here's a little advise for ya, I know damsels are pretty aggressive and never had to deal with one personally but I had an ornery fish I put in the tank first before who thought he owned everything. What I did was catch him and put him in a specimen container (or QT) for a day then re-introduced him, after that he wasn't so territorial.

And for catching the fish, what I did was lure him to the surface with food and netted him when he came up to eat

 

Actually, I'm more concerned that I crushed them. I checked the rock when I pulled it out and returned critters to the tank. I can account for nearly all the snails, but can only find a couple of dwarf hermits.

Interesting idea. I happened to have a 10 gallon tank lying around from my freshwater days and have set it up as a makeshift quarantine tank. Perhaps I'll let the Blue live in there for a month until after I introduce my clowns.

 

A couple of new additions:

The toadstool leather has really opened up since I moved him from the sandbed. Not only is he standing straight up, but the polyps are extended and he seems to be unfolding bigger.



The rest were all purchased from Cageburn's Epic Corals and look great.

Whammin Watermelon Zoas - I'm hoping the green around the edges starts to come in a little better, but these guys are looking pretty good:



Hot Tamale Zoas - the fire red center on these seem to almost glow:



Struggled to get a good picture of this guy, a pink Ricordia:



Can't wait to move these guys to their permanent homes

 

Congrats on everything.That toadstool looks very healthy.

 

everything looks great! the watermelons will color back up they got a little stressed from fragging, im glad you like the hot tomales there one of my favorites glad you like everything eric it was a pleasure meeting you!

 

what kind of lighting are you running on the tank?

 

Aquarium Lighting: Coralife Lunar Aqualights Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights

I've got the 36" 192 watts on a 30 gallon so about 6.4 watts per gallon.

 

that toadstool is awsome!

 

Here is Pagliacci, the Occelaris Clownfish I added to the tank Thursday evening. Trendy or not, I still think this is one the most beautiful fish out there. He likes to spend his time swimming along the glass, perhaps looking for a way to escape?



One thing I learned from taking this photo...damn its hard to focus on a fish darting across the tank.