Vandur Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 Fellow Nano-reefer’s, 5 months ago, when I was first setting up my 20H, I purchased a small Yellow-Tailed Blue Damsel to help cycle my tank. Now that my tank ahs cycled, my corals are growing and spreading, and my coralline algae is starting to grow back, I want to put a one to two more small fish in the tank (preferably small goby’s or blenny’s [i.e. no bigger then 1-2”]). So, I went to my LF and found this really awesome looking Hector’s Goby (Amblygobius hectori). He was perfect for my tank, colorful, useful, and full of life. He seemed to be doing well in the tank so I left the house for dinner. I came back pretty late and don’t see him, so I figure he is hiding.. 2 weeks later I figure something has to have happened to him.. I haven’t seen him, even when I feed my tank (no drifting and no sunken bloated corpses.. hmm). On a side project I run to my LFS again and get a peppermint shrimp (Somehow I seemed to pick up a nasty case of Aptasia – 18 different ones that I could count). I bring the shrimp home.. go through the normal waiting period and slowly introduce him to the tank.. Immediately I my little Damsel takes offense to the new guy and starts prancing around in front of it, flashing fins and trying to peck it to death.. (ARGH!) Is that normal behavior for Damsel?! Everything I have introduced into the tank seems to be attacked by the darn thing (a second peppermint shrimp and a fire shrimp). It has been a few weeks since the shrimp addition, so I decided to try another fish (a very cheap Fairy Goby). He has been in the tank now for about 5 days, and seems to be doing OK. To stay out of the way though I see him routinely sitting on top of my power head (like ½” below the surface of the water). If he moves to far from the corner my Damsel starts strutting around acting all intimidating, but he doesn’t seem to be attacking him (he tried a couple of times, but seems to be resolved to the fact that another fish is going to live with him). So, after that long email, my question is.. Is that normal? Are little Damsels ALWAYS that possessive of a tank? (I had an earlier setup with a Yellow-Tailed Blue Damsel, a Horned Blenny, and a Green Striped Goby. They all seemed to have gotten along pretty well… So, this Damsels aggressiveness has really shocked me.) Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the Peppermint shrimp did an AMAZING job of removing every Aptasia in the tank. Even the ones that looked big enough to eat a shrimp. ~R Link to comment
sjpresley Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 Yeah, sounds about right, especially because it had the tank to itself for a considerable time. Sounds like the goby isn't going to last either, I would expect it to eventually starve because the damnsel (no not a spelling error) won't let it eat, and will chase it causing further stress. Link to comment
DeskJockey Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 yeah sj is right. Take that little sucker out and get some credit for him. Dont put anything else back into the tank for a while so the two other fish can hopefully feel comfortable again. This will probably take some time, and once things look good get something that is less aggressive. HTH Link to comment
Vandur Posted March 15, 2003 Author Share Posted March 15, 2003 SJPresley / DeskJockey, First off, thanks for the advice! Everyone seems to "eat" at feeding time right now (I have seen the little Goby snagging food), but I think you are right about what to do with the Yellow-Tailed Blue... He seems to be fairly aggressive since he ahs had the tank all to himself for a while. ~R Link to comment
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