Murderous Damsels?!?!

[sacramentofish]

I noticed my TR clown hidding more than usual one day, then one day he was gone alltogether.. not a trace. not in the fuge, not in the overflow, not on the floor.. gone..

So was the lawnmower blenny.. just vanished..

I went to get a replacent clown and the LFS guy (pretty good place) told me that my damsels probably ate them bc I was not feeding enough.. true I was only feeding 1 x per week, (or less) I figured that since I had a million pods and cops in the fuge that I could cut back on the krill.. help with the chems..

does underfeeding cause damsels to attack?

btw- I am now feeding at least every other day.. the new clown seems to not be in danger.. they don't seem to pester this one as much as the first clown.. personality clash??

 

[SquishyFish]

I know they are normally very aggressive...makes sense that hunger would make them worse.

As far as Damsels go...my favorite phrase is "Here kitty kitty"

 

[Biggen]

Well I can tell you that my experience with Damsels (Yellow Tail in particular) is excellent. But this is because I introduced this as the last fish in the tank. My Royal Gramma is more aggressive than the Damsel and will actually chase it around the tank when it gets in the Gramma's territory.

So, I do think introducing them last makes a huge difference.

Anyway as Squishyfish pointed out, they can be very aggressive so it is possible he harassed them to death, but I can't imagine it eating another fish unless it was larger than the other fish and/or extremely hungry. Have you checked behind and under all your rock work to make sure they aren't under there?

I am now feeding at least every other day..

What was your feeding schedule before? I feed my fish once a day every day. Seems to make everyone happy and doesn't over-pollute the tank with fish food.

 

[loganj]

Damsels can be evil little buggers. It's entirely possible that the damsels harassed the other fish to death. I expect that hunger was part of the reason. I don't think the damsels ate the other fish though. They may have nibbled at them some. My guess would be that the fish died under the rock and the inverts devoured them. You'd be surprised how quickly pods, snails, hermits, ect... can do away with a dead fish. They can pick it clean almost overnight. My experience with damsel has been that the yellow tails are one of the less agressive varieties...I've never had any aggression issues with them and I have several of them in different tanks. I also feed every day.

 

[sacramentofish]

thanks for the input.. I will continue to feed daily to make sure they don't cause any more damage.. I do have a TON of inverts and pods keeping the tank spic an span.. too much rock to move and inspect.. chems are fine, no spikes after the 'disaperance'. case closed