Damsels - did I do the right thing?

[Kristyreef]

Hi,

I started my cycle about 2 weeks ago. I was told to buy a couple of damsels to help clean up tank and speed up the cycle process.

So I bought two yellow belly I was told that they aren't as aggressive. They are going well in my tank.

I have since spoken to a good friend who said don't get damsels!!

Did I do the wrong thing? Do I keep them and see how they go or do I try and sell
Them off?

Confused by conflicting information.

I want to keep clowns, maybe a little wrasse and a few other fish plus a couple of mandarins down the track.

What do I do about my two little damsels?

 

[emmett0122]

to start its not the idea to cycle your tank with live fish you can do and damsels are about the hardiest fish and they can survive. if they were add at the same time they may not show aggression with each other but when you go to add new fish it could be a problem. all i can say for that is see what happens when you add new tank mates. i had a yellow tale damsel i then add a domino damsel they ended up killing each other so as for me other then clowns (as they are in the damsel family) i will never own another damsel.

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

unfortunately damsels are very aggressive and usually are a pain. i would trade them or take them back to the store.

cycling a tank is different than 5 years ago. now we usually us some uncooked(raw) shrimp or straight ammonia. either one will cause a ammonia spike which then after a week turns into nitrite then finally your nitrates goes down. once your ammonia and nitrites are both at 0 then your cycle is complete.

 

[Kristyreef]

Yeah! I think I might try and do that :-( I feel bad they are such nice fish (at the moment) silly me! Oh well. I should have posted this before I bought them. I got too excited at the thought of having something in my tank!

My nitrite & nitrate is currently rising. Hopefully it won't be too much longer and It'll be finished cycling.

Thanks for your help.

Kristy :-)

 

[reeftanker84]

for future referance if you want to keep a wrasse and manderines you are going to have big problems with not enough food for the manderins,they are not easy by any means and the wrasse will eat pods too so 3 fish eating the same food your going to have problems

 

[Kristyreef]

Oh! Ok.. I will have to rethink what I want in my tank most!

 

[reeftanker84]

yea and make sure your tank has an established pod population as they will clean it out very fast then starve unless you can get them to eat prepared foods and its hard to do

 

[Slimkasey]

If you want to keep your Damsels, yes these are the territorial ones, before you add your next fish, once those are ready to come out of QT, then try the mirror trick, put it in a corner, so they are attacking the mirror and ignoring the new ones, or dark out the tank and keep I dark for a day or two, then lights on and surprise.

These tricks ave been known to lighten the aggression.

Just to clarify, the level of aggression, the damsels show is territorial, it's not like the are going to eat up your other fish.

 

[DCONKLIN]

I had my original 3-stripe damsel from the begging on 9/10/10 until I upgraded 6/28/13. Why? I could not catch him he was good at hide-n-seek. When his home had enough water drained Satan as I called him was scooped up and taken to a fish store. Satan was placed in a tank with 2 much larger fish who showed him the new orders of things.

 

[reeftanker84]

i had a guy that was returning a clown that he said was evil.i bought it and put it in my 75g with another smaller clown and it turned all perfect and wasnt mean at all

 

[Aquarian]

i had a guy that was returning a clown that he said was evil.i bought it and put it in my 75g with another smaller clown and it turned all perfect and wasnt mean at all

Clowns are mean when they are crowed, kept with other clowns of the same size among other reasons. Perhaps you just provided a more relaxing environment for it.

 

[emmett0122]

the thing with clowns are they are born male ant the dominant one becomes female so if he had a clown in his and and added another later the one in his tank would have turned female and and if the clown he returned was already female the larger on will kill the smaller female as there can only be 1 female

 

[Aquarian]

the thing with clowns are they are born male ant the dominant one becomes female so if he had a clown in his and and added another later the one in his tank would have turned female and and if the clown he returned was already female the larger on will kill the smaller female as there can only be 1 female

When you say it like that it sounds like a episode of "Hylander"

 

[emmett0122]

lol it sounds bad but its life for clowns lol

 

[Reef Raf]

Yeah...better off without them. They very likely will start busting heads in your tank. But good luck getting them out : )