Advice for adding fish with mean damsel

[RealReef7]

Currently in my 120 sps reef i have the following

1xpurple tang
1xblue damsel
1xmelaranus wrasse
2xfalse percs

I plan on adding 5-7 chromis and 2 banggai cardinal fish, only concern I have is the blue damsel is aggressive maybe 1.25-1.50" long. If I add this many fish at once the chances of him bullying 1 fish would be reduced? Any recommendations? Can't get him out, too much sps colonies and he won't fall for the bottle trick or the fishing hook trick.

 

[Hbohi]

when I add fish I do it with the aquarium lights and the room light off so they the go to there places to sleep...I had the same problem but with a lunar wrasse and that worked for me and I left the lights off over night and then would turn them on in the morning and never had a issue

 

[drej424]

I have a 4 stripe damsel that I received as a gift 8 years ago. So I know what you mean about having a nasty damsel... I wouldn't put any cardinal fish in with the damsel. They are peaceful fish and they are slow swimmers. With a 120 tank, you could go with some larger, more aggressive fish that could hold their own with the damsel if you wanted. Anyway, that's my suggestion.
I think adding more than one fish at a time is a good idea. So is Hbohi's suggestion of lights off. Sometimes, moving rock around helps reduce territorial aggression. Good luck!

 

[RealReef7]

Any recommendations on fish?? btw its a fiji yellow belly blue devil damsel...

 

[Iowafisher]

No way will I let a 3$ fish bully my 50$ fish lol flush it or take it back to the LFS

 

[SDguy]

Any recommendations on fish?? btw its a fiji yellow belly blue devil damsel...

I had one of those in my very first reef. I may as well have ripped the fins off of any new fish and killed them myself, skipping the middle man, as it were

Do yourself a favor and get a trap, catch the damsel, and trade it in to the LFS.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Just for info: Chromis have always had the habit of reducing their numbers to one and lately; many chromis are simply dying, often with uronema. Stories about Chromis croaking have been all over our forum for quite a while.

 

[ca1ore]

I had one of those in my very first reef. I may as well have ripped the fins off of any new fish and killed them myself, skipping the middle man, as it were.

Very funny! I've held similar sentiments over the years. Had a three stripe in a 180 one time that had the entire remaining population of fish pinned into one end. Had to hook it!

 

[SOCOMMike]

Don't flush the fish! It isn't his fault.

 

[gsiegel]

Step 1- remove mean damn sel
Step 2- add new fish
Step 3-enjoy with no worries (or at least less worries)

 

[drej424]

I kept mine. It's in my 215 with a Goldbar maroon clownfish, a majestic angel, a large yellow tang, and a red dotty back. Whatever you do, don't get a red dotty back! They're beautiful, but they get big and they are really nasty.
You could probably add a pink tail trigger or a Niger trigger, if you like them.

 

[Silly clownfish]

I set up an old 10g for a vicious damsel I had, just used a cheap little filter, no skimmer, plastics "decorations" and kept it in an unused bedroom. Kinder than flushing. Te only thing I regret going cheap on was I had an ancient HOB heater that was not submersible and one day during maintenance it fell in the tank. Talk about an electric blue damsel - he was bright! Recovered fine, but The room smelled and there was a greeasy black film on the tank. Very angry fish.

 

[humaguy]

yeah, get mean damsel out...pound for pound they are probably the toughest fish around and are total nightmares...

 

[frostyjay1]

Try the fish trap idea. if you have to leave it in there, get a dottyback or royal gramma. they can really hold their own