Bullying in the tank.

[CorporalFin]

I have a three striped damsel, a yellow-tail damsel and a blue damsel in my 55 gallon they are all pretty small. The three striped and the blue damsel seem to have a mutual understanding for each other but the yellow tail is being picked on by both of them he ends up spending most of his time at the top of the aquarium trying to avoid the other two. Any advice on this?

 

[Palyzoa]

You might need to separate them, do you have another tank like a QT to put the yellow tail into? Or maybe a refugium in the sump. Unfortunately damsels can be real bullies.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Unfortunately, damsels often are little jerks and regularly bully other fish. My only suggestion is to separate them.

 

[CorporalFin]

Would that be a permanent thing or just till he gets bigger because he is smaller than the other two

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Would that be a permanent thing or just till he gets bigger because he is smaller than the other two

IMO they're not likely to get along. I avoid damsels completely bc they are almost always bullies.

 

[CorporalFin]

Will clown fish act the same since they are part of the same family

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Will clown fish act the same since they are part of the same family

Not usually. They can be a bit territorial, but not usually nearly as aggressive as other damsels.

 

[CorporalFin]

Ok i will move him to the QT hopefully he will like it in there.

Thank you for all the help everyone.