Undy met her match?

[jcopp24]

My undy of 5 years I believe has met her match.

I purchased a small 1" damsel ( yellow ) from the pet store as more of an addition to the tank to color, and hopeful food.

I put the fish in with the Undy... and I havnt seen the Undy since.

Well really the Undy has been hiding in her cave and will not leave for anything.

After a couple of days I noticed that the tail looks like it has been bitten. Instead of being smooth all the way around the tail has small bites missing from the very end.

I would hope that the tail is not just rotting away... I would only assume that damsel has bitten her a few times.

So... take the damsel out?

 

[jcopp24]

Sorry about the multi posting... I am not sure what happened.

 

[Titan*69]

Not sure whats going on there, but I'd be willing to bet my left..........that the damsel is not bullying the Undy. Damsels are feisty little buggers but not that tough.

I'd put two YT damsels in with mine, and all was well with the trigger hiding mostly and ignoring them. Even when the lights went out I was periodically checking in on them, and the Undy was nowhere to be found.

Before bed I saw the two YT's floating in the current seemingly getting used to their new home; the next morning gone. Undy finally comes out've the rocks with a bulging belly...

 

[jcopp24]

Titan,

Anything you might have in mind for the "bite" marks on the tail?

I appreciate the comments please...

If she is only going to hide then I will take the damsel out!

Or do I go buy another fish to get adapted to the tank while the trigger hides?

 

[flameangel88]

I don't know about other triggers but my small pair of blue throats are always out in the open since day 2 and they were able to hold up pretty well against my much bigger nasty PBT.

 

[danorth]

Damsels can be nasty fish. Perhaps your undy was happy with the way things were and now isn't and hasn't started fighting back yet at this point. Hopefully it is still coming out to eat? Good triggers aren't always easily replaced.

 

[jcopp24]

The yellow damsel is coming out tonight.

I was just waiting for your response Danorth.

It is still coming out to eat, but very hesitantly.

 

[danorth]

Well thanks, but I have had my share of troubles as well as successes. I just think that if something just doesn't sit right with you, then do something about it asap. Especially since you've had this trigger for so long, you can recognize its behavior a little better.

 

[jcopp24]

I am gonna put the damsel in the refugium / sump tonight.

I have a friend with a smaller 40 gallon that could use the mean lil bugger.

All I was trying for was someone that the Trigger could chase around, maybe bite...

 

[danorth]

Don't know if you've seen this pic, but here is the kiss a big porc puffer left one of the undys I've had before. That was a good match.

 

[jcopp24]

Kiss?

Are you sarcastic... was it a good match? Like a pair in a tank or like a boxing match?

 

[danorth]

Both were nasty and were quite aggressive. They were a good couple of fish to have together. Neither would get the upper hand. Damsels are like mosquitoes, we can kill them, but they are just so persistent to annoy that we would rather stay away from them.

 

[Auesreef]

Trigger

Trigger

I have a mean undy in with three blue green chromisis. He chases them, but is not able to hurt them. The undy was hidding all day long for awhile. I added a clown trigger and they battled for a couple of days and now the undy is out all day long swiming and eating with the clown. Try another trigger to get him out more or even a stars and stripes/ porc puffer.

 

[Titan*69]

jcopp, I could be biased based on the violent behaviour of mine. The damsel may be nipping, but it's weird the Undy would wuss out with no defense.

IME with aggressive trigs when nipped or accidentally bit during feeding, they go after the biter with a hell bent chase.

Lately I've been debating putting my Niger and Undy together in my big tank and thats it. The Niger is the only one that can hang with the Undy; weird I know.

 

[jcopp24]

Do you think you would get a Niger that is bigger then the trigger?

Or do you think a pair would have better success?

 

[Titan*69]

I already have a fairly large Niger that was with the Undy for about 6 months. When I first introduced the Undulate the niger almost killed her, and once he finally let off he'd still own her at will. The niger isn't a blood thirsty killer, just likes to be at the top of the pecking order. Once he establishes himself his tankmates give way and sort've avoid his company.

 

[jcopp24]

My friend has two 3-4 inch Nigers that are buddy's in a tank.

He would like them to come my way...

5 ish inch Undy... with the two Nigers?

 

[Titan*69]

I'd say my situation is a little abnormal.

If you could get a large dominant fish it would work, like a large clown,niger, or even a big wrasse on the upper aggressive scale. If you do try it I'd make sure the fish is definately larger than the Undy.

 

[Grouperhead]

I've got a 5.5" undy that I've been keeping alone since it got to be about 4". I'm thinking of adding some damsels for color too. I'm going to add 3 this afternoon, and will let you know how it goes. To my knowledge she's not killed any of the cortez hermits, she just likes to carry them around and drop them in random places.

 

[yoDavid]

gotta be the damsels biting the undy, maybe the long period of isolation has left the undy socialy insecure or something. not knowing what to do yet. (like if I lived alone int he woods for 10 years, if i saw another person, i wouldnt know what to do.)

I had my female undy in a 65 for 3 years, with a domino damsel, and a tomato clown. but first my undy was alone and would not come out at all. but for my undy , after introducing the damsel , the undy started to come out alot because there was interference of attention brought by the damsels. so it made her more comfortable to not be the absolute center of attention. Eventually the black damsel actually got almost as big as the undy (undy was 6inches, damsel looked a little smaller) and then the damsel disapeared. tomato clowns still going strong.

well I recently got a 5 foot 120 gallon and put a 8 inch queen trigger in it. (yea Don't tell me what ur thinking) and after a week i put my 6 inch undy in it. at first the undy had no idea what to do with this huge fish and the queen would take pecks at its sides like ciclids do. but by the end of 2 days the undy who was probaly was half the mass of the queen was the king of the tank. if the queen got near any of the 120 or so pounds of live rock the undy would death charge him. i got an open top tank so it was like freakin sea world how much they would splash in their one sided battles.

sometimes i would only feed the queen , and then the undys agression would go away as she became weaker. but if one peice of food got away from the queen and the undy would get it, her strength and an attack would come almost immediatly.

so i got the undy in a 60 gallon hex now. put a black and white striped damsel but at the time didnt have much rock work , so he was eaten the first day, (saw the spine with shreds of flesh left).
Ive added about 75 pounds of branch and shelf rock and decided to leave the undy alone for good. (the old 65 had a big pile of rocks on the bottom, creating 2 distinct territories but the 60hex with branch going from top to bottom has only 1 distinct territory)

well thats my undy experience.