stefdvm
Member
I bought a pair of 3 stripe damsels from the lfs as the first inhabitants of my tank after cycling was completed. At that time, I had a 50 gallon tall hexagonal tank and there were no issues. Several months later, I decided to go with a more horizontal tank and moved everyone into a 50 gallon bow front. Everything was okay initially but then one of the damsels (we call him Brutus) became very aggressive; the zebra dart fish lived under a conch shell because he chased them under it any time they came out; he harassed the cardinals to death (literally), and killed my little oscellaris (I saw him floating head up one day and realized that Brutus had eaten all his fins off; I removed him from the tank but he died later in the day); my goby and gramma disappeared; I don't know for sure that he killed them, but... anyway, all of that to say that I nearly disassembled the tank and chased the buggar down; he is now living by himself in the QT. I have recently purchased a 135 gallon tank that is 6' long. My question is whether he will be less likely to kill others in the larger tank, or if I'm just inviting trouble by putting him in there, because I'll NEVER catch him if he starts bullying others again. I'd like to think that he just didn't have enough space -- he's gorgeous, and approx the size of a silver dollar -- but I don't want any other fish to die. When I pulled him out of the DT, his face was black; in the last 2 weeks, his nose has turned white, and I'm assuming that this is just part of the maturation process, though it worried me at first. Right now, I have a b/w oscellaris, the other damsel (who is smaller and much more docile than Brutus), 2 zebra dart fish, a snapping shrimp and 2 camel shrimp. I will eventually add more fish to the 135, but my current concern is deciding what to do with Brutus. The lfs will take him back though I'd like to keep him if possible - just don't want to be unrealistic and sacrifice anyone else.
