Damsel dooing somw weird stuff...?

[Sparky]

My Yellow Tailed Damsel, named Radio, is going to a couple of spots in the tanks and making a heck of a sand storm. He is digging holes in the sand by moving his tail back and forth real fast and kicking up a ton of sand.
Anyone know why?...it's driving me nuts. It makes my tank soooo cloudy you can hardly see in it.

Mike

 

[Guest]

Could be a few reasons. He could be looking for pods, or small worms. He may just be making small areas for territory and such. All in all it's completely normal.

 

[Sparky]

Yeah, he used to move the crushed coral around too. Making all these little holes. OK thanks for the feedback. It's that it just drives me crazy because the little sh*t just clouds up my tank so much.

Mike

 

[24 hours? NE!]

He stirs up a whole 125 gallon tank?

My yellow-tailed did the same thing in my 25. He had nice little corner that went almost down to the bottom. He hasn't started yet on the 55.

How old is your setup? As it gets older the sand won't make quite a mess.

 

[Sparky]

I put the sand in stages. I put the last 100 lbs in last Saturday, it has been an ongoing proccess and I finally finished it. Hopefully he will settle down. He is one of my favorite fish. I had him from the beginning and had to nurse him back to health when another fish decicded he didn't like him anymore and starting nipping all his fins. The agressor is now at home at the LFS and "Radio" has made a full recovery.

We'll see how things go. Thanks.

Mike

 

[Brad]

My yellow tail was doing the same thing. I have to use the baster to blow off all the sand that he has kicked up onto the rocks.

He lived for 10 years in a rubble pile of rocks in my first setup. Recently, I removed that rubble pile and replaced it with a giant chunk of LR.com rock. The new rock is beautiful, but it didn't give the damsel any place to hide at night...so he dug a hole under the rock by kicking up the sand.

Now that he has a hole to hide in at night, he seems to have stopped making such a mess.

Does your damsel have a place to hide?

 

[Sea Cat]

My damsels like to pick up crushed coral with their mouths and spit them onto the live rock.
I call them rockbiters. Like in the movie, Labyrinth.
They make valleys in the aquarium corners and holes under the rock by doing this.
Its fun to watch and seems to make them happy.

 

[ddcboys]

I have damsels and they do the same thing. All four corners of my tank and under the lava rock in my QT tank they have dug holes and push the substraight out. It is quite normal. He should calm down in a few weeks after he find his nitch and hiding place for night time.