Hello people!
I was recently skimming over Liveaquaria's saltwater section when I came across a "Golden Domino Damselfish". I've got to tell ya, this thing is cool! It has a subtle yellow and grey color, and a squat sort of body shape that almost makes it almost ugly (right up my alley). I instantly decided I had to have it. So began the research, and the difficult task of sifting through 1,000,000,000,000 results that Google came up with in just a half a second. As I'm sure most of you have noticed when trying to learn about a new fish 40% of the results aren't even related to the intended search, another 40% is conjecture, and the remaining 20% is completely contradictory to itself.
My first task was trying to figure out if the coloration I thought was so awesome would actually last into adulthood. Google Images proved unreliable, and so did everything else. I came across people saying it turns pure black, or it turns pure grey, and even it developing stripes. The lack of consistent information only lead to more confusion. Do they shoal? Some said yes, while others said for the love of God, don't even let it see another fish for it will surely destroy it. So then I was faced with another question. Are these the demon spawn of an already aggressive group of fishes? I spent hours trying to find trustworthy answers, and have decided to share it here in the off chance someone is running into the same problem.
Here is what I learned.
Dascyllus trimaculatus, Dascyllus auripinnis (my Golden Domino) dascyllus strasburgi, and dascyllus albisella apparently share some of the same common names creating an awful lot of confusion. Even when searching with the Latin names you come up with muddled results. Understandably so as location apparently has a great deal to do with both coloration and markings. D. trimacalatus, and D. auripinnis were thought to be the same fish until 2001 when John E. Randall and Helen A. Randall took a closer at the taxonomy. What their motivation was I don't know. What I do know is that they described a new damsel. They found that it has one less gill raker, shorter paired fins, and a slightly larger size.
It will shoal, and is aggressive as the typical damsel. I ordered 5 and they should be here on Wednesday. Time will tell if keeping a small number of them allows them to feel more secure and thereby be a little nicer, or if the gang mentality sets in and makes things...interesting. I don't know if you will ever need this information or if it is even helpful, but at the very least I hope it comes up in the Google search of some poor soul who went through what I did.
Here are some links for further reading should you be so inclined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dascyllus
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/zool/zoolstud/40.1/61-67.pdf
http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/17515/217_complete.pdf
http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=205736
I hope I didn't bore you or beat a dead horse. Has anyone kept these cool little guys?
I was recently skimming over Liveaquaria's saltwater section when I came across a "Golden Domino Damselfish". I've got to tell ya, this thing is cool! It has a subtle yellow and grey color, and a squat sort of body shape that almost makes it almost ugly (right up my alley). I instantly decided I had to have it. So began the research, and the difficult task of sifting through 1,000,000,000,000 results that Google came up with in just a half a second. As I'm sure most of you have noticed when trying to learn about a new fish 40% of the results aren't even related to the intended search, another 40% is conjecture, and the remaining 20% is completely contradictory to itself.
My first task was trying to figure out if the coloration I thought was so awesome would actually last into adulthood. Google Images proved unreliable, and so did everything else. I came across people saying it turns pure black, or it turns pure grey, and even it developing stripes. The lack of consistent information only lead to more confusion. Do they shoal? Some said yes, while others said for the love of God, don't even let it see another fish for it will surely destroy it. So then I was faced with another question. Are these the demon spawn of an already aggressive group of fishes? I spent hours trying to find trustworthy answers, and have decided to share it here in the off chance someone is running into the same problem.
Here is what I learned.
Dascyllus trimaculatus, Dascyllus auripinnis (my Golden Domino) dascyllus strasburgi, and dascyllus albisella apparently share some of the same common names creating an awful lot of confusion. Even when searching with the Latin names you come up with muddled results. Understandably so as location apparently has a great deal to do with both coloration and markings. D. trimacalatus, and D. auripinnis were thought to be the same fish until 2001 when John E. Randall and Helen A. Randall took a closer at the taxonomy. What their motivation was I don't know. What I do know is that they described a new damsel. They found that it has one less gill raker, shorter paired fins, and a slightly larger size.
It will shoal, and is aggressive as the typical damsel. I ordered 5 and they should be here on Wednesday. Time will tell if keeping a small number of them allows them to feel more secure and thereby be a little nicer, or if the gang mentality sets in and makes things...interesting. I don't know if you will ever need this information or if it is even helpful, but at the very least I hope it comes up in the Google search of some poor soul who went through what I did.
Here are some links for further reading should you be so inclined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dascyllus
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/zool/zoolstud/40.1/61-67.pdf
http://australianmuseum.net.au/uploads/journals/17515/217_complete.pdf
http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=205736
I hope I didn't bore you or beat a dead horse. Has anyone kept these cool little guys?
