What kind of damsel is this?

mikmeh

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I've been scouring google, this forum, and others and cannot find a positive ID on this fish. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe yellowbelly, Azure, blue devil?
It's super territorial and has created little caves by blowing the sand around with it's tail. Aggressive but just chases away a pair of clowns. Started the tank on 4/1 and learned these are good starters aside from being aggressive. Eventually I'll prob have to re-home (or maybe start a new tank! :p ) Anyway, beautiful and fun to watch for now.

20220523_113852.jpg
 

blaxsun

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Stegastes diencaeus or juvie Stegastes variabilis?
Leaning towards the longfin damselfish. If so, this is going to end up being one ugly damsel.

ugly-mf.jpg


Behavior-wise, it sounds a lot like my ***hat yellow belly damsel.
 

Jay Hemdal

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These Atlantic damsels can be tough (at least for me!) to ID. Juvenile Longfins are usually are more yellow. It looks like I can see a tiny black spot at the juncture of the tail fin and the body (at the caudal peduncle) , I think I can also see a tiny spot at the base of the pectoral fin. If those two spots are indeed there, then this is probably a Cocoa damsel, Stegastes variablis. I think the taxonomy of this group is in a state of flux, but no matter which species, these guys will turn brown and mean as they mature.

Jay
 

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