My quirky, buzzing, cloud-making damsel showpiece...
I love damsels. My favorite tank is a damsel reef. I'm pretty good at it. I don't have nipped fins or the like---and one of the keys, I think, is, a) keep it to one of a kind and b) figure there's 'one ring to rule them all...' or, there will be a boss damsel, and some species are more apt than others to take that role.
My dark lord of the tank is actually a golden onespot dascyllus---size and shape about that of the smaller tangs, brilliant gold fins, brown body, white spots, and, well, she buzzes like a rattling teacup in an earthquake when she's ticked, or grabbing a morsel of food: the other damsels kowtow to her, but run right back in behind her back. First time I heard her sound off, I thought something had gone wrong with the pump. Loud!
Her latest---I passed my tank and feared I'd just had a kalk overdose---until I saw a white stormcloud come out from under the rockwork, driven by a bright gold tail.
Well, that's one way to clean your sandbed.
I actually have two dascyllus species: her, and a smaller three-stripe b&W that I think is Romeo to her Juliet, and who knows what we'll get if there's a mating. I didn't want a mated pair (problems) and thought those two were far enough apart this wouldn't happen, but, ah, me, he is staying small and she's the biggest thing in the tank.
Their behavior as a species is the same as the maroon clowns, and they actually will adopt an anemone with all the same behaviors. Exactly the same behaviors. I can say somewhat gratefully that if she has teeth, they're not visible (my bucktoothed clarkii clowns of yore were really biters) and she'd rather buzz than bite. Their other name seems to be 'humbug damsel.'
I love damsels. My favorite tank is a damsel reef. I'm pretty good at it. I don't have nipped fins or the like---and one of the keys, I think, is, a) keep it to one of a kind and b) figure there's 'one ring to rule them all...' or, there will be a boss damsel, and some species are more apt than others to take that role.
My dark lord of the tank is actually a golden onespot dascyllus---size and shape about that of the smaller tangs, brilliant gold fins, brown body, white spots, and, well, she buzzes like a rattling teacup in an earthquake when she's ticked, or grabbing a morsel of food: the other damsels kowtow to her, but run right back in behind her back. First time I heard her sound off, I thought something had gone wrong with the pump. Loud!
Her latest---I passed my tank and feared I'd just had a kalk overdose---until I saw a white stormcloud come out from under the rockwork, driven by a bright gold tail.
Well, that's one way to clean your sandbed.
I actually have two dascyllus species: her, and a smaller three-stripe b&W that I think is Romeo to her Juliet, and who knows what we'll get if there's a mating. I didn't want a mated pair (problems) and thought those two were far enough apart this wouldn't happen, but, ah, me, he is staying small and she's the biggest thing in the tank.
Their behavior as a species is the same as the maroon clowns, and they actually will adopt an anemone with all the same behaviors. Exactly the same behaviors. I can say somewhat gratefully that if she has teeth, they're not visible (my bucktoothed clarkii clowns of yore were really biters) and she'd rather buzz than bite. Their other name seems to be 'humbug damsel.'
