i got a tricky black damsel not sure the name but he is vicious and i just put in two clowns and he darts out and nips em and goes back into the rock work. i cant really remove the rocks although i could on last resort, my tank is 3 feet deep. is there any tricks to getting him out?
removing a damsel
- Thread starter g0rFz
- Start date
justdiving
Member
Feed in a big net. 
Good luck. Our two start out fish were damsels. Then we added the clowns.. Same thing happened. They just nipped and made our happy go lucky clowns get shy and hide whenever they were around. We tried everything to get them out.. the pop bottle trap, feeding in a net ect. We ended up having to just pull out all the rock because those darn fish would hide and sneak into every tiniest crevice. So I hate to say it but unless you have some luck on your side.. I guess a new rock scape project is in order!
Hawaiigold
New member
My first fish were damsel. After I had plenty of corals and added more fish I realized the damsels were a bad idea.
I put a green carpet anemone in and two days later both damsels were gone ... that was the good part of the anemone ... Over the months a lot of my nicer and expensive fish, especially new ones ended up eaten by the anemone as well. So the anemone is gone now too!
I put a green carpet anemone in and two days later both damsels were gone ... that was the good part of the anemone ... Over the months a lot of my nicer and expensive fish, especially new ones ended up eaten by the anemone as well. So the anemone is gone now too!
mborn
New member
I know this sounds funny, and a little mean, but I fished my two 3-stripe damsels out of my 200 gal reef. They’d beat up any new fish I tried to add and I wasn’t about to break down my tank to get them out, so I went to a tackle shop and bought the smallest fishing hooks I could find. They were these tiny gold colored hooks (I don’t have the package anymore and I can’t remember the size). I used very light fishing line and baited the hook with a little nub of shrimp and just dropped it in front of them. It literally took only 5 minutes to get them both out. I only let the bait go a few inches into the water so it was easy to control where it went and keep it away from the other fish. The only problem you might have is if your damsels aren’t aggressive feeders. That wasn’t an issue with mine. It didn’t significantly hurt them either, other than being hooked in the mouth and scarring them. So you might try this if all else fails and you’re faced with pulling rock out.
