Newby fish questions

jaxteller007 · Mar 29, 2018

Ok so I'm new to the hobby and have a couple questions about fish.

Our tank came with 2 clowns, 2 blue damsels and 1 sailfin tang. It's a 75 gallon tank. Everything I've read so far about tangs, I know I'll have to upgrade (unlikely for at least a year) or re home him. How do I know when he's too big for the tank? Right now he's not super active with all the new stuff going on. Just generally stays on one side where he's favorite hiding spot is. I'll try and get good pics today but he seems pretty small.

The blue damsels are my bigger concern right now. The larger one we thought was not going to survive the move. He did not do well for a couple days and stayed hidden. Then he became a little more active and would chase other fish away that came near his boat. Now he's just a super ******* and will not leave the smaller damsel alone. He doesn't really mess with the other fish, just the damsel. We have a 10 gallon hospital/quarantine tank set up and were going to put the smaller one in there for a couple days to give him a break, use some stress coat, etc. But he's not so injured that he's slowed down. He's super quick and as soon as I get the net in the water just goes straight to the bottom and starts darting in and out of the rocks. Should I continue to try and get the small one out of the tank or not worry about it? If I need to get him out, any tips on catching the little booger? I worry about stressing the other fish out especially after the move and water change and all that. Case in point, last night ol Captain Jack (sailfin) went almost completely black while I was trying to catch the little damsel.

MagicMarker · Mar 29, 2018

jaxteller007 said:
Ok so I'm new to the hobby and have a couple questions about fish.

Our tank came with 2 clowns, 2 blue damsels and 1 sailfin tang. It's a 75 gallon tank. Everything I've read so far about tangs, I know I'll have to upgrade (unlikely for at least a year) or re home him. How do I know when he's too big for the tank? Right now he's not super active with all the new stuff going on. Just generally stays on one side where he's favorite hiding spot is. I'll try and get good pics today but he seems pretty small.

The blue damsels are my bigger concern right now. The larger one we thought was not going to survive the move. He did not do well for a couple days and stayed hidden. Then he became a little more active and would chase other fish away that came near his boat. Now he's just a super ******* and will not leave the smaller damsel alone. He doesn't really mess with the other fish, just the damsel. We have a 10 gallon hospital/quarantine tank set up and were going to put the smaller one in there for a couple days to give him a break, use some stress coat, etc. But he's not so injured that he's slowed down. He's super quick and as soon as I get the net in the water just goes straight to the bottom and starts darting in and out of the rocks. Should I continue to try and get the small one out of the tank or not worry about it? If I need to get him out, any tips on catching the little booger? I worry about stressing the other fish out especially after the move and water change and all that. Case in point, last night ol Captain Jack (sailfin) went almost completely black while I was trying to catch the little damsel.

IME, that’s just kinda what damsels do. They are bullies. Best bet for the lil guy is to re home him or dump 10 more blue damsels into the tank to distribute the aggression on multiple targets. Good luck.

DeniseAndy · Mar 29, 2018

Damsels are just jerks for the most part. In there nature. They rarely get along with others unless they are a more docile species or have lots of room. I would re-home both damsels or at least one of them. I do not have first hand experience with blue damsels, only the azure, zebra, domino, blackmouth and of course the clowns.

If you are attached to them, find a home for one and the other should be okay. Careful adding new fish though. The sailfin will get too big at some point yes. The coloration is stress. Should come out of it. I call it camo mode. My rabbitfish and foxface were experts at camouflage.

mahindra.dev · Mar 29, 2018

For catching the mean buggers, either DIY fish trap or use frozen food in a big net and see if the damsel will come inside it. Dont feed them today and then try this. I tried this with my Melanurus and boom it worked.

jaxteller007 · Mar 29, 2018

Thanks for the information everyone. We don't want to add any new fish yet (kind of overloaded the tank, rookie mistake). So we may just try letting it go for now and then adding a couple more damsels once our water levels out. We do have more live rock coming tomorrow so that should offer more "territory" the smaller one can hide in.

If we add more damsels would they need to be blues or could we add other compatible types?
Captain Jack Sparrow to his brilliant yellow and black shortly after I stopped trying to catch the smaller damsel. I'm going to hate to have to re-home him

When I went and looked at the tank originally and then when we went to get it, the damsels were just hanging out being buddies. Then during the move, the bigger one got jacked up and we thought he was going to die. Since he's recovered he's just straight on ******* mode.

jaxteller007 · Mar 29, 2018

Whoops so used to my other sports forum didn't think about cuss words. My bad lol.

jaxteller007 · Mar 29, 2018

So apparently what we thought were black/white clowns are probably actually stripe damsels. I looked at pictures of the two and they definitely look like the damsels. This isn't them but they are almost identical.
Man what a rookie move right? lol. I really wanted a pair of clowns and they seem to have a less aggressive temperament than the damsels. So would I be ok re-homing these 2 3 stripes and replacing with a pair of clowns?