Has anyone kept Ambon damselfish?

[Tbg299]

I recently purchased what I thought was a trio of captive bred Talbot's damselfish for my 65g tank from the Diver's Den (Live Aquaria). It turns out they are a totally different type of damselfish called Pomacentrus amboinensis. They are similar colors, but grow slightly bigger from what I researched. There is very little information about keeping this in the reef tank online. I only found information about their behavior in the wild. From what I read, males travel with a small group of mated females, and they burrow a nest under rock in the sandbed to settle in. They have been doing this all day in my tank, exploring the rockwork. I'm worried about how potentially aggressive they are. I intended to get the Talbot's because they have a good reputation but I have no idea about these guys. The larger male seems to be the aggressive one of the trio. The females are not. I saw the male try to nip my algae blenny twice when he crossed his path but the blenny is faster. Now my blenny backs off whenever he comes by. If I see any nipped fins, then I'm definitely removing them.

 

[SDK]

Ambons get significantly larger than Talbots Damsels, grow more quickly and are orders of magnitude more aggressive.

I had the same thing happen. I have a single Talbots Damsel. He has been with me for three years now and is one of my favorite fish. Last year I was shipped a pair of misidentified Ambon Damsels. It took barely two months before they were double the Talbots size and actively trying to kill him. I had to tear the tank apart to get them out.

Their behavior reminded me of the Domino Damsels that I used to keep in the old days when everyone did. They should be fine if you have a larger tank with rougher fish. If you were looking for a smaller peaceful damsel, get them out of your sytstem asap....

 

[areefer01]

Second what @SDK suggested.

Did LA/DD correct the issue? Those are not in the same Genus with the later being in the Pomacentrus family. Not a bad thing but they usually become more aggressive as they age. Actually that isn't fair because it is more territorial to be honest. Especially if you have a pair that spawn. If they are added last and you have enough space in the display tank you would be great. On the other hand if you plan on adding any more fish then it isn't going to work out. They will defend their spot to the death.

These really need to be added last if one wants to chance it. Unfortunately these are not the more often found Chrysiptera's. If you plan on adding any other fish, regardless of size, I would remove them.

 

[Tbg299]

Thanks for the replies. I bought a fish trap. Fortunately they are the only fish in the tank aside from the blenny, so it should be easy to remove them with shrimp as bait. In the meantime I'm going to see if any LFS will take them because I don't want to kill them. I contacted Live Aquaria about the misidentification. I spent $90 on them so I'm hoping they can give me some kind of store credit.