Damsels - The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly

[Porkibear]

Should also include the "Spotted Damsel", which is mostly black with a small white spot near its eye. I started my saltwater tank with it, and he was friendly with all the other fish, but when I stuck my arm into the tank to clean the sides, it would BITE ME until I took my hand away from the tank! It was also a REALLY fast swimmer, and I had a hard time catching it to remove it from my system....

 

[chemesgh]

I have two blue devil damsels in my tank right now. Of course, they were only labeled as blue damsels when I got them, later found the devil part when looking at liveaquaria.com.

I was thinking of trying them out with other fish (going to add a pair of clowns soon), but I'm not going to keep them if they harass new additions. It's kind of sad though to me because they've grown on me a bit. They swim up to the front of the tank when I walk up, and I can even hand feed them pieces of krill on a stick! If I do end up having to take them back to the LFS, I'll probably get two or three blue chromis to be sort of a replacement, as I do love their coloring.

 

[JENnKerry]

This is a great post. I vote to make it a sticky
I am also one of probably a few reefers that absolutely love damsels. Everyone I've ever had has been a model citizen. I think a major key in keeping them more on the docile side is to keep them singly. I say this because they like to gang up on other fish, including each other.
I've had my yellow tail in my 125 for almost a year. An absolute jem. Never bothers anything. I recently added an Azure Damsel and they pal around, just keeping to themselves.
MODS, please sticky this thread

 

[finding nemo]

I have three solid yellow damsels and one large yellow tang in my 75.
They are the only fish in it and I love them all, no fighting, no picking on each other.
And I think that I may have eggs under a shelf of rocks as she was huge a few days ago and now is not and is very protective of this rock.
I Also have three blues in my 125 that have killed off 2 yellows that I introduced into it sadly.
I would rather have the yellow then the blue but I will just keep what I have and not add more.

 

[Swanwillow]

I had a blue... first with my mantis, and he did fine. It was a ten gallon, and the only other fish was a green clown goby: that worked out fine.

but, my fuzzy dwarf lionfish got a good snack one day... lol. the clown goby lived through the lionfish stage (don't worry-it was a 29 gallon)

 

[Mandolynn]

My family had a domino damsel in our 150g. It slammed our yellow tang into the side of the tank so hard, it split his side open. That thing was evil! Our whole family had to help chase him in the tank to catch him, and then he bit my Dad. Needless, to say, my dad gave him away as fast as possible. Yellow-tailed damsels are excellent starter fish though. Very mellow and cute!

Mandolynn
Current stock-
Starting 15g on my own(without Daddy)
20g freshwater
10g dwarf puffers

I'm here to learn!

 

[Lev F.]

I think the most common stereotypes of damsels are because of Dascyllus and sometimes male Blue Devils. This results in people thinking all damsels are a No-No and therefore excluding them from their reef tanks. My damsel is very docile. When I introduce newcomers, all they typically get from the damsel is a flare. Then the damsel forgets about them and continues doing what she does. It's funny, because when most people think damsel, they think they're aggressive, but if the first fish you add was a Pygmy Angel, a newly added Yellowtailed Damsel or a Talbot's Damsel would run in fear.

Mandolynn, Sorry about the tang. Dominoes will be Dominoes i'm afraid. Did he recover? Hopefully your tank is in peace now.

 

[Lev F.]

I added the juvenile black-bar damsel today. He is behaving well so far.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

i have had 3 blue damsels in my whole 3 newbie years and all three were perfect fish, the worst they did was tail slap the newcommers a couple times. I think I just got luckey though and they were an exception to the rule, and if i had a larger tank i would aviod them , because the hassle of getting them out isn't worth it.

 

[xrbzq]

My yellow tail blue is DOMINATING my blue devil, both in the 60g they were in, and the 20g they're in now. And the blue devil was the first in both tanks. I know, 2 damsels in a 20g isn't right, but it's all I can do for now. They don't fight to the point of injury, but... I'll get rid of the yellow tail, but I'm gonna keep the sissy blue devil and try him/her(think its a her)with some other fish later.

 

[Emmelemmo]

My yellow tails were terrors. I bought them at about 1/2 inch in size. I didn't realize they would bet over two inches. They terrorized my blue tang till he dies then took on my lemon peel angel and killed him. It took me and hour and a half to catch both. Luckily the LFS took them in and someone with a larger tank or damsel tank will give them a good home.

 

[ACBlinky]

I've got a South Seas devil (Chrysiptera tapau) in my 65g with other semi-agressive fish, she's nicely behaved and absolutely gorgeous, and fortunately won't get much more than 3". I have a Talbot's in my 30g and she's just a sweetie, not an agressive bone in her body. Every once in a while she eyes up my baby ocellaris, but she's never laid a fin on him

 

[sassyfishy]

I've got a Talbot's damsel, as well. She's a perfectly well behaved little fish. Haven't seen very many Talbot's Damsels for sale in this area. (In fact, she's the only one I've seen so far).
I love watching her dart in and out of the caves. Very animated!