Royal Gramma and damsel don't get along!

[Vince_Z]

Help!

We have a Yellow-tailed blue Damsel (aka Blue) and two A.Ocellaris in our tank. We've recently added a Royal Gramma (aka Prince) to our tank.

At first, Prince quickly found a cave and started hiding right away and getting comfortable in his new surroundings. Blue would wander into Prince's area and Prince would give the signature big mouth display. One day, they both wandered to the middle of the tank (their respective home rocks are in separate ends of the tank) and got into a fight. Blue nipped Prince pretty bad.

So we caught Blue and put him in a breeding trap in the tank for about a week and a half while Prince healed up. During this time, Prince was able to familiarize himself with the rest of the tank including Blue's home territory. Today we let Blue back into the tank and now Prince won't let Blue get settled. Prince chases Blue around the tank with his mouth wide open!

What am I supposed to do now? I thought Royal Grammas weren't aggressive but it seems that Prince is always the instigator. We pulled Blue out for a while because we thought we should be adding the most agressive fish last. We even rearranged the rockwork!

This seems so odd to me. Blue gets along fine with the clowns (Chico and Nemo - don't ask) and Prince gets along fine with the clowns. Why can't these two get along?

Any help is most appreciated.
Thanks,
Vince

 

[e-cat]

damsels are agressive and territorial and some royal gammas are also.

 

[e-cat]

what size of tank is it?

 

[Vince_Z]

what size of tank is it?

38G

 

[e-cat]

should be bigg enuff for them, mabey trade one in.

 

[pufferman]

No duh, both of them are kill each other, if thats a royal gramma you are in the crap now. Watch Out!

 

[Vince_Z]

should be bigg enuff for them, mabey trade one in.

Thanks, but that won't be necessary now.

No duh, both of them are kill each other

I wouldn't go that far...but for sure, all the Damsel's base are belong to the Gramma.

if thats a royal gramma you are in the crap now. Watch Out!

Naahh, the gramma's harmless. The big mouth display is quite entertaining but all the fish's fins are still intact.

The tank is more peaceful now - no more mad chasing. It looks like I just had to wait for the tank to establish some sort of social hierarchy. As long as the Damsel knows that the Gramma's the boss, and stays out of its way, then things are cool.

 

[e-cat]

glad it all worked out for you now.