Evil damselfish

[DanH86]

I’ve had a pair of electric blue damsels for a couple of months now and this past week one of them has literally turned evil. First he started nipping at the other damsel, which got all ragged and small from the stress and took to hiding in a corner of the tank. Just as the little one was recovering, today the evil damsel seems to be on a mission to annoy everything - he’s now not on,y actively seeking out the other damsel to bully it, but nipping at a torch coral and having a go at any other fish.
He‘s spent the past hour going from bullying the small damsel, to nipping at the torch and back and forth between the two!

Have tried catching in a net to give a timeout but it’s too dang fast. What can I do? At this rate I’m gonna lose fish and a torch.

 

[Gareth elliott]

2
options order a fish trap on amazon for fast shipping.

remove water so the fish is easier to catch, buy enough buckets so can just dump the water back in onto a dinner plate when done.

 

[Cell]

Do you know where it sleeps?

 

[DanH86]

Thanks will look into a fish trap.

believe it sleeps under a plating Monti but can’t be sure.

 

[ca1ore]

Just doing what they do .....

Always best if you’re going to do damsels to stick to those in the chrysiptera genus. Pomacentrus genus are a mixed bag; sone, like the electric blue, will almost always get aggressive as they grow. Dascyllus even worse. They can be quite hard to catch. If all other approaches fail, you can hook them. I had to do this years ago with a three stripe that was terrorizing my tank. Fortunately since it was most aggressive to the food, was easy to hook.

 

[jerrod]

You can try doing something like on the video while you wait. I have caught a few small damsel fish and a filefish by doing this. I just made sure that they saw the food go into it and soaked it in garlic just to entice them. Some people say to place a mirror on the back and that some aggressive fish will go in just to fight there reflection.