blue damsel trouble

[BairdimusPrime]

my clarkii hosted my rbta which is awesome but the poor thing keeps getting attacked by a blue damsel that is in the tank, ive tried everything there is traps netting using red lights at night to catch the nasty bugger but i cant.. I cant take apart my aquascaping due to corals attatched in the tank... any suggestions??? FYI these two little terrors have taken over a 65 gallon aquarium literally over night

thanks


Bill

 

[bradam]

Damsels are evil :mad2:

If he's got a regular hiding spot you can try to siphon him it. I used a 1 inch hose into a 44 gal brute trash can years ago to get one out that I was unable to trap with many differnt bought and homemade traps. Easy to net them in the trash can when you drain 99% of the water out.

All else fails there's always fish hooks you can file the barb off

 

[BairdimusPrime]

yeah i tried siphoning them out they just get into the rockwork.. fortunately Clark W. Griswold is fully hosted and now knocks em around a bit when they try to bully

 

[WDLV]

1. Try determining where the damsel sleeps. Flip on the lights at about 3AM and you'll have about a minute to catch him before he realizes what's going on.

- OR -

2. Get two rubber bands, two paper clips, a small wooden dowel, two zip ties and a multi tool and make a small hawaiian sling.
a. Straighten the three paper clips and cut them in half while holding your multi tool at about a 30 degree angle. You should have four halves with sharp ends.
b. Using the zip tie, fasten the paper clips to one end of the dowel so that about 1/2 of the length protrudes beyond the end of the dowel. Sharp end out (duh.)
c. Cut the rubber bands so that they are straight. Fasten the ends of the rubber bands to the other end of the dowel.
d. Hold the end of the rubber bands with your thumb and index finger. Hold the dowel at the end with the prongs in the same hand with your three free fingers and your palm.
e. Release the dowel only while pointing the mini spear at your leg and say three times "I will not add damsels to community aquariums."

 

[BairdimusPrime]

HAHAH thanks Walt. I do that nightly for my punishment for buying damsels...

 

[WDLV]

Good luck!

 

[bradleym]

1. Try determining where the damsel sleeps. Flip on the lights at about 3AM and you'll have about a minute to catch him before he realizes what's going on.

- OR -

2. Get two rubber bands, two paper clips, a small wooden dowel, two zip ties and a multi tool and make a small hawaiian sling.
a. Straighten the three paper clips and cut them in half while holding your multi tool at about a 30 degree angle. You should have four halves with sharp ends.
b. Using the zip tie, fasten the paper clips to one end of the dowel so that about 1/2 of the length protrudes beyond the end of the dowel. Sharp end out (duh.)
c. Cut the rubber bands so that they are straight. Fasten the ends of the rubber bands to the other end of the dowel.
d. Hold the end of the rubber bands with your thumb and index finger. Hold the dowel at the end with the prongs in the same hand with your three free fingers and your palm.
e. Release the dowel only while pointing the mini spear at your leg and say three times "I will not add damsels to community aquariums."

If there were a contest for post of the month, I would vote for this one.

 

[WDLV]

Thanks!

 

[Angel*Fish]

Bill, I'm sorry about your problem. I'd look into bottle fish traps. Or use the eggcrate partition method if he's big enough.

I'm trying to keep track of which damsels people have trouble with. Do you know which species you have?