Damsels attacking new fish

[mujimran]

I moved my new swallowtail to the main display tank 75G and the 2 damsels I have are chasing it without a break. I had an idea that they would be aggressive to new comers but I have added atleast 4 new fishes at diff intervals but all was smooth. Even adding the flame angel last month they didn’t care. Now suddenly they are soo aggressive.

In my attempt to remove them from the tank I moved all the live rock to a corner (messed my ‘aquascape’), though I still couldn’t catch them they seem little distracted now.

Thinking move the live rocks around makes them think its not their territory. After a day if I put the roxks back in their place will they mellow down and accept the new fish?

 

[mujimran]

I moved my new swallowtail to the main display tank 75G and the 2 damsels I have are chasing it without a break. I had an idea that they would be aggressive to new comers but I have added atleast 4 new fishes at diff intervals but all was smooth. Even adding the flame angel last month they didn’t care. Now suddenly they are soo aggressive.

In my attempt to remove them from the tank I moved all the live rock to a corner (messed my ‘aquascape’), though I still couldn’t catch them they seem little distracted now.

Thinking move the live rocks around makes them think its not their territory. After a day if I put the roxks back in their place will they mellow down and accept the new fish?

I kinda love them as they were the first fish in my tank and survived the past 4 months. Will be sad to give them away.

 

[bpbonds]

If the new fish is around the same size as the Damsels they will bully it! they can be very aggressive it is very common for this to happen with Damsels.

 

[bpbonds]

What type of Damsels do you have?

 

[Dolphins18]

I am sorry to hear. The damsel fish turn mad as they get older, I had one years ago that was super nice early on and turned into an absolute devil. Thing was nearly the size of a large angel.. This was a 90 gallon tank and I could not move the rock scape, I stuffed filter floss into every single opening in the rock until it was confined to the open space. Took forever, never again.
This was a crushed coral base (huge pieces hermit shells and mixed rock) and this fish would dig to the bottom of the 3" CC base until its tail was ripped up. It was ridiculous, it spent another 4 years in the sump.

 

[czoolander]

Acclimation boxes that hang on the glass are awesome it shows you any aggression in the tank while keeping all the fish safe. Worth every penny !

I had wrasse aggression when I added my clownfish and it took over 7 days before the aggression went away. I am convinced without that box the wrasse would have killed the clownfish.

 

[mujimran]

What type of Damsels do you have?

couple of 3 striped damsels. 1.5”

 

[mujimran]

If the new fish is around the same size as the Damsels they will bully it! they can be very aggressive it is very common for this to happen with Damsels.

The damsels are 1.5”. The swallowtail is 6.5”. So huge diff there. The swallowtail is fighting back

 

[frizzayyyyreef]

Love them but they are aggressive little spawns of satan had to get rid of all mine they are just so aggressive most lose that nice color eventually anyway

 

[mujimran]

Update: Its been 5hrs now and no aggression . Moving the rocks to a corner seems to have confused them. Lol. All fishes curiously explored the new terrain. All peaceful now. ( )