where to put damsel

[Susan Edwards]

As soon as the 125 g cycles, I am tearing down my display refugium and turning it into a fish qt (39 gal tall). In it are 1 gold head sleeper goby (sand sifter) and a yellow tail damsel which have to go either into the new 125 or the 66 gal tank with the following:
2 blue/green chromis
2 darwin clowns
2 purple queen anthias
2 dispar anthias
1 mandarin
1 scooter blenny
1 bangaii

I plan to add maybe 1 more bangaii and maybe a blenny in a few months. Maybe just the bangaii.

I need to figure out where to put the 2 soon to be displaced fish. The goby will go into the 125. I have tons of low corals on sand and low on rock and don't want to battle sand. The 125 is big enough maybe he won't destroy it totally and there is no coral yet of course. The damsel is my problem.

When in qt with the 2 chromis, the damsels were aggressive so even with just one, I worry about upsetting my current stock. If I put it in the 125, I do plan to put in anthias and tangs, maybe some chromis, but it is also a larger tank--twice the length. If it goes in that tank I'd prob. add 1 or 2 more.

Where would you put your orphan damsel

 

[Brew12]

I've had 4 yellow tail damsels in my tank(s) for over a year and they have never caused any problems.

 

[ca1ore]

I've never had issues with aggression with the YT damsel either, though I do tend to more boisterous fish populations. Have 13 of them in my tank. Dunno whether you have all those fish yet or not, but you may want to reconsider the purple queens. They are almost impossible to keep alive. On those rare occasions they do it is either good fortune to find one that breaks the mold and actually eats 'normal' foods or borderline heroic efforts to provide adequate quantities of the very tiny foods they eat. I'd consider myself to be a pretty good fish keeper and I've only succeeded with them once, and that was in a dedicated NPS tank with blueberry sea fans that was continuously fed with things like newly hatched brine. They also don't do well with aggressive tankmates like tangs, and will often go into hiding. I'd pass on them.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Thanks @Brew12 As they are fairly hardy fish, perhaps it will go in the new tank and I'll add another 1 or 2. It's used to living with the goby.

@ca1ore I have those fish already. So far, the purples are eating. I'm adding in small fish food to the mix--I only feed frozen or what I make. I also feed live hatched brine 2x's a day. Feeding a min. of 4-6 times. They all go nuts for the brine Will eventually taper to 3 feedings with a couple squirts of baby brine. 1 purple a lot shyer but is coming out more now. Other purple hangs with the dispars. They are awesome fish

 

[ca1ore]

I agree, the purple queen (Tuka) is a stunning fish; just so twitchy. That you are doing hatched brine is good. The trick is weaning them onto larger fare. If you can find it, nutramar ova works well too. Good luck ..... and pictures please

 

[Susan Edwards]

@ca1ore I have nutramar ova along with pe mysis, pe calanus, rotifillers and oyster eggs. I thaw and rinse and mix 3-4 of those in one jar. In another jar I use either my home mix or LA Fish frenzy plus some various frozen cubes but not the tiny stuff. I add the bigger mix once a day along with a bit of the "anthia" blend, feed the anthia blend once or twice more, and the baby brine twice. One thing I'm trying to do is get away from "cube" foods to foods that promote healthy guts with good bacteria like larrys for healthy immune systems. When I can find/get them I'll try black worms as well. I have half a shelf in the big freezer dedicated to fish foods...

we'll see if it pays off.