Just tore apart my tank to catch 2 BULLIES!!

[lbannie]

I've had enough of the darn 3 stripe damsel and clarkii clown!!! They are two big bullies!!! Not only does the 3 stripe pick at my xenia, but yesterday I brought home a BEAUTIFUL coral beauty, and both of them were picking on him!!! So bad I'm not sure if he's gonna make it. So I tore apart all the rocks and after an hour caught the two!! The added stress probably didn't help the CB, but at least he's not getting picked on. I'm going to add some fresh saltwater and leave the tank alone for a while to let him relax. Hopefully all goes well! I was getting tired of my rock scape anyway!! When all is normal I gotta get a pic of this CB! The name is soo fitting!

 

[Supra]

What did you do with the other 2?

 

[Mpfaff77]

I have a trap in my tank right now trying to catch Anthia that is getting bullied. I went the tear apart the tank route. Pain in *** not to mention messy.

 

[lbannie]

I have them in a tote right now.... not sure what to do with them!

 

[lbannie]

The CB didn't make it...... I'm so upset. At least I got the culprits out

 

[Mrc8858]

Take them to a lfs and donate them or see if they will give you credit for a trade

 

[boardsurfer]

Make sure when you're introducing fish to introduce community fish -> semi aggressive -> more aggressive. They were just protecting their territory. How long have they been in the tank?

Sorry for your loss... I had similar issues with my two clowns bullying.

 

[lbannie]

2 years! I really like the 3 stripe damsel, one of my first fish. but lately he's been a terror! The other night I watched him bulldoze my finger leather coral that was wedged in the LR!! he hit it so hard with his little head it fell onto the sandbed! The coral is 10 times the size of the fish!

 

[boardsurfer]

Yup, your system is that damsel's reef! I might introduce a similar semi aggressive fish with other community fish (at the same time) to curb the damsel from bullying so much. My mated clowns were in ny 125 by themselves for a couple of years. Anything I added got bullied, but I introduced a yellow tang with a couple of community fish- and this disrupted the pecking order in a positive way. The tang was now the boss and so the clowns didn't bother the others any longer.

 

[Flreefer]

The only Damsels, I would put in a community setting, would be blue/green Chromis. All others seem to get really nasty, as they get bigger. Started my tank w/ 10 yellow tails & 2 Seargent Majors. At 3 1/2 inches the MJors were like Pirhana! Took hours to get them out of a 135 reef!! Never again!

 

[Mrc8858]

I wouldn't even recommend any chromis.. my school of blue greens became a lil gang beating up everything in my tank including my coral which took me 2 weeks to get all 5 out lol

 

[Flreefer]

Yeah, I agree. I had a little shoal of them myself( 10). And S they aged they were semi-aggressive too. They were actually spawning on the side of the tank, but I never saw any fry. Great natural food source though! When I changed tanks I gave the remaining Chromis to a buddy at an LFS.

 

[Sniperhank]

I have a similar issue in my tank. I have a royal gamma, occy clown, and a blue damsel, and a neon goby. The one getting bullied is my damsel from the clown and gamma. I'm upgrading my tank and not really doing anything about it TBH since the damsel was picking on my goby. Once the 55 is up and running, I'll be introducing peaceful fish and then the stock from my 36 so the territories won't be an issue.

 

[lbannie]

Brought the evil things to my LFS.... He said he's had similar problems in his tanks at the store with clarkii's and damsels. He's getting me another CB and giving me a "good deal" on it! We'll see!