Help! My fish are eating eachother!

[MBWannaBee]

So, this weekend, I bought a firefish goby. I already had a coral beauty and a blue yellowtail damsel. The damsel has been eating at the other fishes fins ever since. I can see where he has bitten the fins. I tried to rearange the rock but it hasnt helped any. Any suggestions on how to get em to stop fighting?

 

[RtReef]

Get rid of the damsel. They have major Napoleon attitudes and will most likely greet future fish with same aggression.

 

[MBWannaBee]

Ok, thanks. Im going to take him back :/ Any opinions on a nicer replacement?

 

[Sheol]

You goofed. Plain & simple..
Always, and I mean ALWAYS add more aggressive fish LAST. Damsels can be very teritorial, & when they are first fish in, that means they own the tank. Its not his fault, he is just following his instincts.
Always do your homework on what fish you add to your tank!
This is a classic newbie mistake, I don't mean to sound too harsh. Just be aware in the future OK?

Matthew

 

[Khemul]

^ Yep.

There are some more peaceful damsels (Talbot, Amblyglyphidodon sp., etc) but most are rather aggressive or at least get mean as they age. The aggressive ones tend to take a lot longer to settle down and ignore new fish then anything else in the tank.

Also, in my experience changing the rock work doesn't really work for these type of fish. Marine fish don't necessarily look at the rock itself as their territory. In the wild they'd deal with the occasional changes to rocks anyways. It is the water around the rocks that is their territory. Even for small fish, that can be a couple feet (which covers most tanks right there) around the rocks.

 

[evilfrog]

yea just get rid of the damsel he will do more harm than good 95% of the time

 

[kailo]

although getting rid of that monster of a damsel may be a bit challenging. couple hours later and after rearranging my rockwork for the umpteenth time, i got that sucker out. never getting one of those fishies ever again. XD